Systems of Magic

The following is an alphabetical breakdown of all the types of magic in Exalted, what they come from and how they can be used. Not all of these ideas are properly fleshed out yet, and they'll eventually get their own sections on this wiki if I find the time.

Important Note: Exalted is a high-magic setting, and all of these systems do exist within it. But not all of them need be used at once. And some may never see an appearance in a given campaign. Decide as part of your setting discussion (in session zero) which systems you'd all like to see the most use of.

Astrology (and Paradox)
Mortal astrology works in the usual fashion, but the true Viziers of Fate can learn a special magical version of the skill that combines Rune Casting with Disguise and which can also be used to petition the government of heaven to change the very fabric of the universe. A powerful ability indeed, but not one without its costs. Careless sidereals will suffer lawful retribution, and the spite of the pattern spiders through the associated emotional attribute (Paradox). All of these mechanics are described in excruciating detail in the sidereals section. (The sidereal mechanics aren't written on the wiki yet, but you can see a draft of them here)

Blood Magic
Blood Magic (BWC pp 367−371) can be used to aid Necromancy, Death Art, Whispers, Rituals, and Summoning tests only (see below).

Enchanting
There are no major changes for Enchanting (BWC pp 290-305) save that the skill is basically forgotten to the excesses of time. It cannot typically be opened during character creation unless Enchanting appears as a lifepath skill. If the character has opened Enchanting via life-path skill points then it may initially only use it for Imbibing.

The other (more powerful) aspects of Enchantment must be learned from old books or ancient beings, which will probably require a quest, the Ancient Languages skill, a lot of downtime, practice, and some trial and error.

Those interested in Enchanting should also look at the Artefacts section.

Essence (or Faith)
Essence is wielded by all spirits and exalts, most exigents, some special mortals, and certain other strange beings. Essence is a revised version of Faith (BWC pp 522-527), the full mechanics of which are described in their own section. See also: Spheres and Channeling Examples

Gossamer (or Art Magic)
The Art Magic system (BWC pp 279-289) is embedded into the "Gossamer" attribute, wielded by the raksha, their elf-like cousins, and some fêy-bloods. Gossamer is not wielded by the hannya, hobgoblins, ogres, or mutants.

Those with Gossamer choose their schools of magic during character creation, though they may return to the deep Wyld or spend a point of Deeds to reform themselves and choose new schools of magic. Those who wield Gossamer cannot also be Gifted (and hence cannot learn or perform Sorcery/Necromancy), though they can learn Summoning or start hearing Whispers.

Wyld demesnes can be used to supplement Gossamer, but only Gossamer Wielders who share a primary school of magic can Help one another.

Balance Note: Through play we have discovered that the Evoke power (BWC pg 283) is very powerful since it can basically just be used to instantly immobilise someone for a whole Fight. For this reason I suggest doubling the Duration Ob penalties when using Evoke.

Starting Gossamer
Gossamer opens at rank B3, is natrually open ended, is not affected by wound penalties, and advances like a skill.

During character creation answer the following three questions: Each correct answer will advance Gossamer by 1 point. Answering all three answers correctly will allow you to shade-shift the attribute down to G1 instead. As with faith and similar such questions, the GM should keep track of a PCs answers and hold them to it. If they said they didn't care about beauty but then start to appreciate it, for example, then reduce their Gossamer by 1.
 * Question: Do you wish to see the beauty of life? Acceptable answers: No. Life is not beautiful. I long only for the beauty of eternal Chaos.
 * Question: Do you wish to have a soul? Acceptable answers: No. What use is a soul? Having a soul means to one day die, to one day know the meaning of sorrow, and to grow old and attached to things. Souls are distractions from the Chaos.
 * Question: Do you fear the Sea of Chaos knowing that it will one day destroy you? Acceptable answers: No. Returning to the Sea is my destiny. I am it's tool, and I will be remade once I have served its purpose.

Gossamer and Artha
To make Gossamer more of an emotional attribute it has the following two Artha powers:
 * Fate: Channeling the Wyld. You open yourself up to the twisting chaos within you and draw upon it's hidden reserves. Allows you to FoRK Gossamer into your own Gossamer stat. Counts as advantage dice. (This is here because using Art Magic as an attribute instead of a skill means there are no normal FoRKs and Help is rare.)
 * Deeds: Reform the Body. You may completely alter your physical body in some way (even going as far as to change your stature, stride, cosmetic traits, and shift a few exponent points around in your stat pools) and choose new schools of magic.

Hannya (Gossamer 10)
At a Gossamer exponent of 10 the wielder becomes an ever changing symbol of living chaos. Their entire character sheet is boiled down into a single open-ended ability that can do basically anything simply called "Shape". (Take an average of all their exponents and round to the nearest integer.) The character becomes unplayable.

Limit (or Greed)
Limit is a product of the so-called "Great Curse" that affects all solars. Limit is a revised version of Dwarven Greed (BWC pp 121-124), the full mechanics of which are described in the Solars section.

Martial Arts
Supernatural Martial Arts are a special custom skill that any essence user can learn, with time, and a mentor. They work a lot like Elven Skill-Songs and the process of their creation is detailed more thoroughly in their own section.

Shapeshifting (and Abjection)
Shapeshifting is a lunar ability that works like an Elven Spell-Song. It may be opened for 2 skill points or learned in game without an instructor. It is rooted in Essence and it's associated emotional attribute called "Abjection". These mechanics are all described in detail in the lunars section.

Sorcery/ Necromancy
There are two different primary magical skills in Exalted: Sorcery (BWG pp 499-521) and Necromancy. These are can also be referred to as "White Magic" and "Black Magic", respectively, but this nomenclature can be easily confused with the shades of BW, so we generally avoid calling them that.

Sorcery and Necromancy both function identically, they both require the Gifted trait to learn and use, but they use different spell lists (see below). Necromancy is generally illegal in most parts of the Exalted setting, though note that, despite the name, Necromancy doesn't exclusively revolve around summoning or controlling the dead. Summoning and Death Art are also different things (see below).

If "Sorcery" appears in one of your lifepaths decide with your GM whether it should really be "Necromancy" instead.

One can acquire the Gifted trait through play by undergoing "The Five Trials" (see Ex2 pp 250-251).

In order to open and learn Sorcery/Necromancy one must also know the Symbology skill. This is because almost all spells in Creation are written in an ancient symbolic language called ‘Silurian’. Therefore: Symbology can be FoRKed when learning new spells, and Illuminations can be FoRKed when teaching them.

Spell Lists
All standard Mannish spells in the Burning Wheel are considered to be Sorcery spells and follow the standard rules.

All Orcish ‘Rituals of the Night’ may be considered Necromancy spells; simply replace all instance of the word ‘orc’ with ‘undead’ and remove the ‘Void Embrace’ requirement.

Converting Spells: See here for a list of almost all 'first circle' sorcery spells from Exalted, and see the Spell Conversions section for advice on how to convert them, plus some examples.

Spellcasting for Essence Wielders
A character who is both Gifted and an Essence Wielder can opt to not Tax and instead flare their Anima. An essence wielding character who does this cannot cast spells and use essence channellings at the same time though.

Why: Because an essence user can already do a lot of the same things that spellcasters can do using minor miracles. Giving a spellcasting essence user the option to avoid Tax altogether incentives the use of Sorcery (since the spell is probably going to have obvious effects anyway, the Anima flare is often less of a consequence than Tax).

Spell Circles
The original Exalted also has three tiers of spell. Anyone can learn the spells from the so-called 'first circle'; but only exceptional magicians can learn spells from the higher circles. This is not represented by any new traits, but rather by ''shade. ''If the caster's Sorcery skill is grey-shaded then they may learn 'second circle' spells, and if it is white-shaded then they may learn 'third circle' spells. (This breaks a bit from the usual lore of Exalted, but I don't care!)

Attempting to learn and cast a spell of higher circle is possible, but it suffers a +2 Ob if it is one circle higher, or +3 Ob if it is two circles higher. These costs are factored when buying such spells during character creation too, with +5 or +10 rps penalties, respectively.

Control Spells
Every spellcaster gets a so-called "Control Spell", for free, which is usually the first spell they learn. When casting the control spell the sorcerer gains a +1D advantage when casting that spell (and for any Tax or Sustaining tests). Spellcasters can purchase an additional control spell during character burning for 4 trait pts. (They're basically just an "Affinity for..." trait.)

A new control spell can also be learned in-game by spending three months with a spell that you already know and making a Symbology test at an Ob equal to that of the spell.

Note: If a character's specific lifepath choices somehow gave them the Sorcery/Necromancy skill but not the Symbology skill then they do not get a free control spell.

Other Subsystems
Control spells are a subsystem lifted straight from third edition Exalted. If your group wants to incorporate them, you can also add Shaping Rituals (Ex3 pp 466-470) as traits, and Sorcerous Workings (Ex3 pp 483-489) as large-scale group-spellcasting activities requiring downtime and Artha expenditure. Working out the rules for such subsystems is something you'll have to do yourselves though.

Additionally, you may decide as a group before starting a campaign whether or not you want to use the "Arsenal Method" (BWC pg 372) or the "Universal Library" (pg 373). This will quite fundamentally change the lore of how spells work in the Exalted universe though, so whichever way you choose, you must stick to it.

Summoning
Summoning is not a spell in Exalted Wheel (like it is in traditional Exalted). Instead, use the Summoning skill (BWC pp 324-339). It is a separate skill that even the ungifted can open and learn.

Recontextualizations

 * The "Restless Dead" includes all minor ghosts (such as hungry spectres and mortwights). But major ghosts (such as nephwracks and hecatoncheires) can also be summoned within the same Order using Ob 7. Major ghosts offer all services except social and transference. Their opening price is the soul of another.
 * The "Sanctified Dead" are souls that have passed on into Lethé. They really don’t like being ripped back into the material world after getting so close to reincarnation, so their starting price is possession.
 * First circle demons and minor elementals count as two separate orders of "Minor Corporeal Spirit". Similarly, second circle demons and major elementals count as two separate orders of "Corporeal Spirit", and third circle demons and elemental dragons count as two separate orders of "Major Corporeal Spirit". Elementals cannot perform Social services, but most will not demand (or accept) possession or souls as their price.
 * "Minor Deities" are terrestrial gods, "Deities" are celestial gods, and "Chief Deities" are the incarnate and primordial gods.

Note: These recontextualizations also apply to the unwanted summoning chart (BWG pg 511), except replace the Chief Deity summon with a Major Ghost summon. Also, one should generally favour accidental elemental summoning over accidental demons!

Affiliated Orders

 * Those who know Necromancy and learn Summoning get a 1D affiliation with the restless dead order for free.
 * Those who hear Whispers and learn Summoning get a 1D affiliation with the sanctified dead order for free.
 * Those who know Sorcery and learn Summoning get a 1D affiliation with either the first circle demons order or the the minor elementals order for free. (choose one)
 * Those who just know Summoning just get a 0D affiliation with the restless dead order for free (as per usual).

Thaumaturgy
"Thaumaturgy" is a catch-all term for mundane magics, and it includes skills like Alchemy, mortal Astrology, Circination, Meditation, and Ritual. An example of incorporating them into you game would be to say that Thaumaturgic Rituals (Ex3 pp 490-491) can be learned like spells as an additional use for an appropriate skill.

Whispers (and Death Art)
Are heard by the abyssals and most ghosts or stygians to some degree or another. Whispers is a revised version of Corruption (BWC pp 255-262), the full mechanics of which are described in their own section.

There's also two versions of the Whispers attribute:
 * If the magician is both Gifted and hears the Whisper of the Neverborn then they can use the Necromancy skill for Death Art (BWC pp 340-362) and the Whispers attribute like the Ritual skill to make linked tests for Death Art.
 * If they hear the Whispers of Oblivion then the Whispers attribute itself can be used to cast Necromancies and perform Death Arts. The Necromancy skill may then be used like the Ritual skill to make linked tests.