Blooded Houses

By Chris Sakkas.
Adapted from John Harper's Lady Blackbird and Sage LaTorra's Revolucion.

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In this empire, there are some half dozen noble houses bound by the Star Chamber and the House of Lords. This is a true aristocracy - the monarchy was toppled a generation ago and royal blood lingers only in brooding House Serra.

Ilysium is the empire's capital. It lies atop an older city, not built by humankind. Living statues, wide-mouthed but dumb, fill the niches of the walls of that dead place.

Magic is the privilege of the nobility. Sorcery passes through noble blood, and so each marriage is carefully balanced so that magic is preserved and heightened. Bastards, scattered across the land, have a weaker magic.

There is one other way that magic is bestowed. Royal decree imbues the magic of the land within the recipient of the decree (writbound magician). With the monarchy dead and gone, House Serra has pledged never to use this ritual.

Noble Houses: Ash, Blackbird, Chant, Firefly, Memory, Mooncloud, Nightsong, Serra, Serenity, Snow, Twilight, Whitethorn.

Game Options (Lady Blackbird)

To create a noble, full-blooded sorcerer take the Master Sorcerery secret. To create a bastard-blooded sorcerer take the Bastard Blood secret. To create a writbound magician, take the Writbound Magic secret.

Secrets

Secret of Powerful Blood

You have an innate magical power that does not require sorcery. Choose one of the following traits and a tag from that trait: Dustblood, Ghostblood, Voidblood, Stormblood, Flameblood or Dreamblood.

Secret of Master Sorcery

As long as you can speak, you can channel magical power and do sorcery. You have the Master Sorcerer trait and may choose one tag from that trait.

Secret of Bastard Blood

As long as you can speak and gesture, you can use some magic. Choose one of the following traits and a tag from that trait: Windblood or Whispblood.

Secret of Writbound Magic

As long as you can gesture, you can perform spells. You have the Petty Magic trait and may choose one writbound tag.

Secret of Gestalt Magic

You can use more than one spell tag at a time. Requires: Secret of Bastard Blood or Secret of Writbound Magic.

Traits

Master Sorcerer

Spellcasting, Channeling, Sense, Dustblood, Ghostblood, Voidblood, Stormblood, Flameblood, Dreamblood.

You may also choose tags from any trait you have the tag of. For example, if you have the Ghostblood tag you can choose tags from Ghostblood trait.

Ghostblood

Fly, Possess, Insubstantial, Control Technology, Electrical, Dominate, Terrify, Sneak, Overload.

Dustblood Magic

Hex, Strain, Haunt, Winnow, Terrify.

Stoneblood

Harden, Make Heavy, Meld Into Stone, Petrify, Immovable, Mauler, Move Through Stone, Shape Rock, Tough.

Voidblood

Invisibility, Vacuum, Make Weightless, Pass Through, Erase Mind, Counterspell, Disintegrate.

Dreamblood

Sedate, Manipulate Dream, Enter Dream, Hallucination, Blind Fighting, Read Mind.

Stormblood

Wind, Lightning, Fly, Blast.

Whispblood

(one spell tag at a time)

Float spell, Thin spell, Whisper spell, Pale spell, Hypnotism spell, Spark spell.

Windblood

(one spell tag at a time)

Drizzle spell, Sun spell, Dry spell, Shock spell, Zephyr spell.

Petty Magic

(use one spell tag at a time). If you have the Channeling tag, you may use two or more spell tags together if you take a long time to perform the spell. If you have the Spellcaster tag, you may use just two spell tags together.

Light spell, Dark spell, Jump spell, Shatter spell, Channeling, Spellcaster.