Magic: Sphere of Chaos
Magic: Sphere of Chaos

Chaos Magic focuses on the energies that guide people's lives and the raw elements of magic itself. The results one gets from it are never quite what one expects. Chaos Mages control luck, probability, and the effects of magical energies. Quite often they are used to enhance spells or to manipulate the effects of certain magical items or zones. They aren't employed as often as one might think because unfortunately their spells tend to have side-effects or "added color" that aren't always desireable. Most view Chaos Mages more as a "necessary evil" than a boon.

Most Chaos Mages are either partially insane, eccentric, or unshakable. Some people refer to them as "Luck Mages"... but that luck isn't always good. It isn't hard to spot a Chaos Mage in a crowd. He's either the one that doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that his tail is on fire, the one being chased by a mob of angry blue creens, or the most oddly dressed person in the room.

Quite often they are paired with other mages to enhance or "spice up" their rituals. They are often resented by their peers because of the unpredictability of their spells. This negative stigma also extends to the general populace -- There are some people, for instance, who use Chaos Mages as scapegoats for every bad thing (real or imagined) that happens to them.

Cantrips

  • Dissolve
    A small cloud disappears by the use of magic alone. Large stormclouds are unaffected by this, and the clouds tend to reform as soon as the cantrip's effects wear off.

  • Fade/Brighten
    This cantrip works best on cloth. When cast, it will fade an area of color wherever the mage places his hand, or will make the color brighter. The effects of this cantrip are not permanent, much to the relief of clothiers who often find unexplained handprints on their wares.

  • Wisp
    This alters the currents of air around the caster's hand and/or fingertips, creating a small trick of light, similiar to that of heat radiating off of pavement. It's easy to miss unless you're watching for it.
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    Minor Spells

  • Added Effect
    This is more of an entertainment spell than a useful one. If used along with a Fire spell, it might cause the fire to take on odd shapes or colors. For a rain spell, it might cause bugs to rain down from the skies instead of water ... or it might make water produced by a Water Mage taste like peppermint.

    This is an extremely unpredictable spell, and like so many other Chaos spells, the end result isn't exactly what was planned. (One of the most recent flubs was that when a wealthy noble wished it to snow on his wife's birthday... the Air Mage caused the fluffy flakes to fall, but the Chaos Mage's addition made each and every flake yellow in color.)

  • Concealment
    Not so much of a "stealth" spell or invisibility spell, this simply alters the chance of someone noticing the person affected. This spell is easily broken and the one wishing to keep from being noticed still needs to make an effort to remain out of sight. The effects can also be reversed, causing the object to gain more notice than usual... although the spell sometimes has odd ways of attracting attention.

  • Douse
    Detecting magical energies and any taints that might exist on something. This spell can be used to determine if an object is magical and if it's an "evil" item or a "good" item, or if the magic in a specific Forbidden Zone or area is balanced or imbalanced in one direction or another. It cannot be used as a "compass" to sniff out magic; it simply determines the intent and power of a specific area. If told that a certain item is magical, then the mage can know to focus his spell on that item instead of in a general area, but it cannot locate magical items.

  • Fortune Telling
    This spell allows the mage to see the future of a specific person. It's not as detailed as scrying and cannot name certain events that will happen to a person, but can be used to determine if someone has a lucky or unlucky life ahead of them. A Chaos Mage is unable to determine his own future with this spell.

  • Luck
    This spell can be placed upon an object or a person for the duration of an hour to a week, depending on how much time was spent on the spell. It can do one of three things, increase the object's chances (or objects in its contact) of positive occurances happening (Like finding a coin in the street, winning a bet, or getting a good die roll), increase negative occurances (getting robbed, losing a bet), or stabilizing someone temporariarly who might be naturally lucky or unlucky. Like all chaos magics, this spell can be unpredictable and sometimes oddities or unexpected results may occur. (Magic doesn't know that repeatedly rolling the same number on a die might make people suspiscious, for example.) Most gambling halls, casinos, and betting arenas have wards against such magics around their facilities.

  • Passage
    A "safety" spell that some airshipmen or travelers will partake of before they're about to go on a journey. Supposedly this spell makes the trip more safe and less exciting. There is also a variation of this spell (Peril) that does the exact opposite, granting the traveler a more dangerous and interesting trip. The duration and effect of this spell varies greatly. Most Chaos Mages mumble this spell under their breath when traveling home on a dark night in the wrong part of town.

  • Trigger
    This encourages any pent up bits of probability to go off -- Usually events that were going to happen anyway like an apple falling from a tree or a rickety old house collapsing. This spell does not "cause" things to happen so much as simply encourage them. A gun that was going to misfire might go off anyway, but a gun that was properly packed and safety measures taken will not. This spell can sometimes set off traps, but tends to be somewhat unreliable in that regard.

    Another application of this spell is to suppress such events. A strained rope about to break might hold for just a bit longer. This isn't really a "reversed" form of the spell ... just a probability push in the other direction.

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    Rituals

  • Blessing/Curse
    A highly controlled ritual, this spell works similarly to "luck", but tends to have more powerful effects. It affects chances in a positive or negative way... although if the chance did not exist to begin with, then the spell is useless. This spell is sometimes used before planting for good harvests, around the sick to encourage recovery, and at the beginning of voyages to encourage safe travels. This spell cannot actually cause plants to grow, heal the sick, or protect an airship from bad weather... it simply affects the chances of something positive occuring. On the flip side, it is also used (illegally) to curse harvests, cause the sick to die or healthy people to become sick, or to make travel very dangerous. An especially powerful version of this ritual was used by the Chaos Mages of the Emperor-Potentate to "bless" the participants in the Emperor's Challenge with greater chances of encountering each other during their travels.

    As powerful as this ritual is, it is also unpredictable just like other Chaos magicks.

  • Dispel
    The Chaos Mage uses his powers to destroy an enchantment put on a person or an item. It involves weakening the spell and then magically "shattering" it.

    This is an extremely dangerous and unpredictable spell for mages that are trying to remove evil enchantments or curses, as the spellcaster must momentarialy draw the energies into himself before dispelling them. There is a chance that the Mage could very well destroy himself right along with the cursed object, or could die having done nothing at all to remove the enchantment. There is also the chance that fragments of the enchantment may still linger in an area and cause trouble.

  • Enhancement
    Increases or decreases the magic in an area. This can either cause machines to work better or spells to be more enhanced. The enhancement only lasts as long as the mage keeps the spell "up". They cannot use this spell to make another spell more powerful, although they can "back up" another mage while he's performing a spell or ritual. If a mage works on a spell that is being enhanced by a Chaos Mage, it tends to be more powerful and more quickly cast than normal... but the end result also tends to reflect "flavors" of Chaos Magic in the way of little unexpected occurances. A machine bolstered by a Chaos Mage has a chance of exploding as soon as the spell ends, even if it has no explosive components.

  • Reverse
    Almost all Chaos spells can be cast in a positive and negative way, so it is only natural that a Chaos mage can also reverse the effects of other magical elements as well. A spell designed to make a plant grow can make it shrink instead, or a spell made to warm up a room can make it chilly.

    The more powerful or complex the spell, the less chance this ritual has of doing anything useful, and some spells may have more than one possible way of being "reversed". For example, reversing an Ice Bolt spell cast by a Winter (Water) Mage could cause the Ice Bolt to be targeted on the caster instead ... or perhaps cause a "bolt" of hot water to be summoned instead and still launched at the same target.

    If used alongside another mage's ritual, the mage can choose to "resist" the spell and bypass its effects.

  • Stabilize
    This ritual is very useful in Forbidden Zones or patches of wild magic. It will temporarily calm a small area around the mage and holds back the effects of wild magic for however long the ritual is "held up". The more powerful the opposing magical forces are, the harder this is on the casting mage and quite often after using this ritual the mage needs time to recover. There is also the danger of "rebound" when the spell goes down. (In other words, a Chaos Mage can't just walk into Bosch and hold back the energies there. He could for maybe an hour at most, and then as soon as the ritual was ended it would be as though he were hit with an hour's worth of Bosch effects and radiation all at once.)

    The reverse of this spell is known as "Blitz". There's no better word for this ritual. For a brief period of time it will cause probability to go absolutely crazy in an area. Bottle corks will pop off, frogs might rain down from the skies, and everybody gets the same song stuck in their heads. Usually when the spell's effects pass there's a big mess and lots of confused people standing around wondering what the heck just happened.

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