Ritual Magick

==Definition==
Ritual Magick is the act of performing a ceremony, either created by the magician or written in a grimoire (a book of magick). These rituals normally involve reciting words out of a spellbook, lighting candles, walking in a certain pattern around an altar, etc.. Additional magicians may take part in the ritual, and even characters with no understanding of ritual magick may be quickly coached beforehand and follow the lead of the magician performing the ceremony. This type of magick normally invokes demons, spirits, or deities and must be performed with care. However, ritual magick has the most potential to raise energy.
==Prerequisites==
Ritual Magick and the Magician characteristic. Theology (for contacting deities or angels) or Occultism or Magick (for demons or spirits) may also be useful for designing a ritual, as the GM decides. Incantation may also be used alongside the Ritual Magick skill in order to raise even more energy.
==Tools==
An altar is necessary, along with the four main tools of the art: a ritual dagger, a seal (a tile with an image of power important to you, such as a Pentacle or the sigil of Saturn), a wand or staff, and a chalice filled with water, wine, blood, etc.. A spellbook and a stand for the spellbook may also be present, but any item not necessary to the ritual will only detract from it by one success rank per item.
==Energy==
Energy is raised through performing the ritual exactly as is required. The magician performing the ritual rolls on his Willpower modified by his Ritual Magick skill every hour of the duration of the ritual, and every minute of that hour he gains one point of energy per rank of success. This amount will be multiplied by every person helping to perform the ceremony. Note that if a ritual is performed in a sanctified ritual chamber, all energies raised are doubled.
Before the ritual begins, the magician may perform some actions that may assist the power of the spell. Each will add +1 every time energy is raised. The following is a list of the things that the magician can do to add to his success. You may use one corespondence from each row on the list. To find out what correspondences would work, the magician may use all of his magickal knowledge skills to discover what to use (but he could be incorrect, thus tainting the spell).
Note that EVERY detail must be carefully ensured. If he is wearing a ring made of gold, but the ritual calls for silver, he will not gain the bonus from having gathered appropriate metals, and actually may receive a penalty, or a visit from an angry demon.
Correspondences for Ritual Magick
Corresponding Items 	Candles, idols, tapestries, and other significant items
Corresponding Colors 	Certain colors will work better with certain spell types, such as red for love spells or black for death. The magician, if he is going to use color as a correspondence, must make sure everything from the candles to his robes and the robes of his acolytes are appropriately colored.
Corresponding Materials 	The magician must ensure that every metal and every stone being used, such as the chalice, the idols being used, and even the jewel in his ring, are all made of a corresponding material.
Corresponding Times 	Certain times are better suited to casting certain types of spells. Black magick, for example, is best done at midnight, but every hour, day, and phase of the moon has its own special correspondence.
Corresponding Scents 	The magician may burn certain incenses in order to add to the spell. If the incense runs out, the spell will suffer.
Corresponding Ornamentation	The magician and his acolytes may wear certain clothes or jewellery to add to the spell.
Corresponding Deity 	Calling upon the right deity or spirit will assist in the spell, but invoking the wrong one will ruin the whole thing, and possibly also make the entity angry.
Researching the Spell 	If the magician obtains a spellbook containing a spell similar to the one he's trying to cast, it will greatly assist in the casting.
==Method==
The magician will begin to perform the ceremony as required either by the grimoire wherein the spell was found or the plan the magician has created beforehand. The ritual must be performed perfectly, so the magician may wish to have his grimoire or notes open and available on a book stand near the altar. He should roll on his Willpower, modified by his Ritual Magick skill, once per hour. His acolytes need only be present, but a second magician may also be present in order to help (by rolling assistive Willpower + Ritual Magick rolls every time the magician does to enhance his rolls). Energy is built up using this method as described above until he has raised enough energy to cast the spell.
When he has raised enough energy, the magician calls out his intent, and rolls a Willpower roll unmodified by any skill. The result indicates the success rank of the spell. 
Note: A ritual magician does not have to select a permanent deity to be devoted to. However, every ritual can only invoke one spirit or deity. Therefore, if the spell is a spell of destruction, the magician may wish to invoke a god of war rather than a god of healing. An incorrectly chosen deity will either not assist, assist in a completely unexpected way, or will put some kind of curse on the magician to punish him for his insolence. Also note that such a ritual must be completely undisturbed. If any form of disturbance takes place, regardless of the concentration of the magician, the spell fails instantly and all energies being raised for the spell fail. If a hostile entity is being invoked and the circle which is drawn to contain him is disturbed, the entity will attack the magician and his attendants.
Category:ESPER
Category:Magick