Sorcerers

**Sorcerers**, or as some call them “witch doctors & shamans”, are spiritual guides and practitioners. Unlike some other mages, sorcerers commune with forces that they are born with or have been given as a gift. Their magic is chaotic, and left to their own devices, they rage against one another in unending primal fury. It is the call of the sorcerer to bring balance to this chaos. Acting as moderators among the arcane, sorcerers summon totems that focus magic to support the sorcerer’s allies or punish those who threaten them.

## Sorcerous Origins

### **Draconic Bloodline**

Your innate magic comes from draconic magic that was mingled with your blood or that of your ancestors. Most often, sorcerers with this origin trace their descent back to a mighty sorcerer of ancient times who made a bargain with a dragon or who might even have claimed a dragon parent. Some of these bloodlines are well established in the world, but most are obscure. Any given sorcerer could be the first of a new bloodline, as a result of a pact or some other exceptional circumstance.

### **Divine Soul**

Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul. Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being. Perhaps your ancestor was an angel, transformed into a mortal and sent to fight in a god’s name. Or your birth might align with an ancient prophecy, marking you as a servant of the gods or a chosen vessel of divine magic.

A Divine Soul, with natural magnetism, is seen as a threat by some religious hierarchies. As an outsider who commands celestial power, these sorcerers can undermine the existing order by claiming a direct tie to the divine.

In some cultures, only those who can claim the power of a Divine Soul may command religious power. In these lands, ecclesiastical positions are dominated by a few bloodlines and preserved over generations.

### **Giant Soul**

The giants once dwelled in a fabled realm known as Ostoria, a paradise for their folk that reflected their mastery of the mortal realm. In time, Ostoria fell, and the giants were scattered and broken. During that mythic era, the giants granted a few chosen individuals among the small folk a shard of their great power. These favored people were caught in the same tragedy that sundered Ostoria. Since that time, they have spread across the many worlds of the multiverse. Now and again, one of their descendants manifests the gifts imparted by the giants, granting them sorcerous magic that allows them to command the elements and gain the might of a giant.

### **Phoenix**

Your power draws from the immortal flame that fuels the legendary phoenix. You or your ancestors perhaps rendered a phoenix a great service, or you were born in its presence. Whatever the cause, a shard of the phoenix’s power dwells within you.

That power is a mixed blessing. Like the mythical creature, you can invoke fiery energy and gain the ability to cheat death itself. This power comes at a cost. The fire within you seethes, demanding to be unleashed. You sometimes find yourself absentmindedly feeding fires. You can’t bear to allow a fire to sputter out. You feel most comfortable while holding a lit torch or sitting in front of a campfire.

More importantly, this gift comes with no special protection from fire. You are as vulnerable as any other creature to fiery magic, including your own. Phoenix sorcerers can use their powers to pull themselves back from the brink of death, and all too often their own, rash nature or reliance on destructive magic is what puts them there in the first place.

Such sorcerers are wanderers by necessity. The volatile nature of their magic makes other folk nervous. If a fire breaks out in town, a phoenix sorcerer had best flee, whether guilty or not. Fire is a dangerous force, and phoenix sorcerers have a reputation (deserved or not) for reckless behavior, confident that the essence of the phoenix can save them.

### **Pyromancy**

Your innate magic manifests in fire. You are your fire, and your fire is you.

### **Sea**

The power of water is the strength of flexibility, resilience, and relentless nature. Water parts to allow a ship to sail over it or a diver to plunge into it, but their passing leaves no mark. Water flowing down a mountain reaches the sea. It might bend and turn across valleys and down hillsides, but it slowly and steadily returns to the waves. Those whose souls are touched by the power of elemental water command a similar power.

Your heritage ties to powerful creatures of the sea, such as nereids, the lords of the merfolk, and elemental powers. Like a river, you feel the call of the ocean. The call is ever-present in your heart, and you are never completely at peace until you are near the sea.

### **Shadow**

You are a creature of shadow, for your innate magic comes from the Shadowfell itself. You might trace your lineage to an entity from that place, or perhaps you were exposed to its fell energy and transformed by it.

The power of shadow magic casts a strange pall over your physical presence. The spark of life that sustains you is muffled, as if it struggles to remain viable against the dark energy that imbues your soul.

### **Stone**

Your magic springs from a mystical link between your soul and the magic of elemental earth. You might trace a distant ancestor to the Plane of Earth, or your family might have earned a mighty boon in return for a service to the dao lords. Whatever your past, the magic of elemental earth is yours to command.

Your link to earth magic grants you extraordinary resilience, and stone sorcerers have a natural affinity for combat. A steel blade feels like a natural extension of your body, and sorcerers with this origin have a knack for wielding both shields and weapons. In combat your place is amid the fray. You rely on your elemental nature to shield you from harm and your magic and metal weapons to overwhelm your foes.

### **Storm**

Your innate magic comes from the power of elemental air. Many with this power can trace their magic back to a near-death experience caused by the Great Rain, but perhaps you were born during a howling gale so powerful that folk still tell stories of it, or your lineage might include the influence of potent air creatures such as vaati or djinn. Whatever the case, the magic of the storm permeates your being.

Storm sorcerers are invaluable members of a ship's crew. Their magic allows them to exert control over wind and weather in their immediate area. Their abilities also prove useful in repelling attacks by sahuagin, pirates, and other waterborne threats.

### **Wild Magic**

Your innate magic comes from the wild forces of chaos that underlie the order of creation. You might have endured exposure to some form of raw magic, perhaps through a planar portal leading to Limbo, the Elemental Planes, or the mysterious Far Realm. Perhaps you were blessed by a powerful fey creature or marked by a demon. Or your magic could be a fluke of your birth, with no apparent cause or reason. However it came to be, this chaotic magic churns within you, waiting for any outlet.