Magic How-To Guide

This is intended to give examples of how to cause certain commonly-sought magical effects using the Rhean system. Note that there may be other ways of creating these effects and that this is not by any means an exhaustive list of what is possible in Rhean. The first part gives examples of how to create these effects; the second breaks down these examples by type or source of magic.

Rune Magic
The difficulty with Runic magic is transmitting effects to the target. Obviously, drawing the Runes onto the target itself will achieve this, but this is often impractical. A common way of transferring an effect involves using the Other Rune as part of a Focused or Constrained Phrase.

• Sleep: The Rune Night will send most beings off to sleep. The easiest way to do this is to draw Night as the central Rune in a phrase on some sort of loose material, such as sand. At the least, include the Other Rune in the phrase. In this case, the sand will send those who touch it to sleep. As can be understood, once the runes are invoked the sand can be hurled at opponents; this disturbs the Runes, but it will still be efficacious, although only for that toss. If it is allowed to sit, only a short time can go by with it keeping its power. This is natural sleep, and the affected person can be awakened normally.
• Creating fire: Runic magic does not allow fire to be summoned; that requires elemental magic. However, if the Rune Fire is invoked on a flammable object, that object may begin to burn. At that point, the fire is completely natural. Think of Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, when the company is attempting to flee Caradhras, "...I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow."
• Sealing a door: There are multiple options here. One is to write a constrained phrase using Gateway and Peace; the door is shut, it desires to stay that way. Note that you must have Gateway, to include the idea of the portal; otherwise, you affect the door, not the doorway. A second method could be to use Gateway with a time Rune on the locking mechanism, so that it will not unlatch until that time. Also, Gateway can be used with Wall, which tells the door to act as a barrier instead of a passage.
• Light: The Star, Moon, and Sun Runes all allow for the creation of light. Naturally, one could create fire as well.
• Stone Burst Trap: This is a Construct, designed with two phrases: a trigger, consisting of the Runes Mind, Ka, Signals, Purpose, and Moon; and the Stone Burst phrase, consisting of the Runes Earth, Waste, and War. The trigger phrase includes a description of the triggering condition. Due to its Moon Rune, it can be invoked and will remain active for a month; the rest of the phrase notices the triggering condition and invokes the other portion of the construct when it is met.
• Escalate Tensions: Use a phrase consisting of the Runes Ka and Fire, drawn in air; any who see this will have their passions enflamed.
• Increase the Damage of a Weapon: Use the Rune Purpose on the weapon. While it is maintained (or for a few rounds if not), the weapon does +1 damage.