WtHQM:Invocation
Part of Welcome to Holy Question Mark, a game of the Amber Diceless RPG run by Rook Seidhr.
Invocation is the art of divining and manipulating the True Names of other beings and of items of power. The rules for it are based on the power of the same name from the game Lords of Gossamer and Shadow.
Cost
Basic Invocation costs 20 points and may be broken down as usual.
Advanced Invocation incorporates additional powers, but also greatly improved speed at using the basic powers of Invocation. The additional powers and the speed multipliers can be learned separately, but each requires a complete understanding of Basic Invocation.
True Names
Every living being has a True Name, a unique moniker that encapsulates its deepest nature, expressed in the mystic proto-language called Thari that underlies every language spoken in the infinity of Shadow. Very few beings know their own True Names, but anyone who hears their own True Name spoken will recognize it instantly and cannot help but respond. To share one's True Name with another is a mark of the deepest trust. No being with a ranked Psyche can be compelled to reveal its own True Name.
True-Named Items
Inanimate objects with True Names are rare and often magical in nature. It is possible for an Invoker to have an artifact or creature with a True Name, paid for with points; some legendary artifacts to be found in Shadow also have True Names. Understanding the True Name of an item gives the Invoker an understanding of its history, its nature, and any inherent magic it possesses.
Cost
Buying an item or creature with a True Name uses the usual point-based system, with the following Power added.
- True Name is Known (1 point): the owner knows the item's or creature's True Name, and has an understanding of it, with the usual advantages that conveys
- True Name is Warded (2 points): as above, and the True Name is concealed as per the "Warding a True Name" ability (below); no being other than the owner knows it
- True Name is Secret (4 points): the True Name is completely unknown, hidden by forces more powerful than the Invocation power itself; not even the owner and the creature know its True Name, rendering it effectively immune to Invocation
Only Invokers may spend points on items or creatures in this manner.
Starting Knowledge
In this game, an Invoker PC does not start out knowing any True Names but their own.
Attribute Tips
Psyche is all-important.
Basic Abilities
Divining a True Name
The ability to determine a being's (or artifact's) True Name by contemplation and research is a key part of Invocation. The Invoker must gather a great deal of information about the target being, or have extensive personal contact with them, and then spend several days in meditation. The more powerful a being is, and the older it is, the longer this process takes; a child's True Name might take a single day, while a minor magical creature or an adult with some degree of magical talent would take a week. The True Names of powerful sorcerers, hugely powerful magical creatures, and beings with the long and tangled history of an Amberite or a Lord of Chaos take months or years to decipher, if it can be done at all. Objects follow a similar scale: a minor charm would take a day, while something on the level of Grayswandir would be the work of years.
Divining a True Name requires sustained effort, interrupted only by such things as food and sleep; it cannot be interspersed with school, employment, spell maintenance, fighting off monster attacks, etc. Partial Invokers who cannot divine True Names on their own must learn them through occult research or bargaining with other Invokers.
Understanding a True Name
In order to make use of a True Name one has divined or otherwise obtained, one must take time to unriddle its meaning. Even superficial contemplation of a True Name is enough to learn the species and gender of an individual, and an Invoker who knows someone's True Name will recognize them on sight, however they might be disguised or physically transformed. Once the name is fully understood, the Invoker will have a sense of what the being is like—origins, personality, powers, and any strong forces influencing the individual's life. In general, understanding a True Name takes one-tenth to one-half the time it took to divine it.
Concealing a True Name
Any Invoker with an ounce of sense will wish to keep their own True Name a secret. There are several methods, all roughly equivalent in effectiveness: shrouding the Name in random syllables, "scrubbing" it from existence by mystical means, or layering another, similar True Name over it as a diversion. Once one of these measures is in place, divining the concealed True Name takes four times as long as normal, and anyone unaware that the True Name is concealed will be unable to understand it or use it in any way. An Invoker with a higher Psyche may notice the concealment, in which case they can understand and use the True Name by winning a Psyche battle with the one who concealed it.
Warding a True Name
An Invoker who is also a Sorcerer can place a booby-trap on their own True Name, essentially hanging a spell that will go off and affect the next person to utter it, no matter who they are or where in Shadow they might be. A competent Invoker will recognize that a True Name has been warded in the process of understanding it, but the spell must still be countered or defended against by the same means as any other spell in order to speak the name safely.
Awareness of One's Own True Name
Becoming an Invoker requires meditating on one's own nature to divine one's own True Name (even for a partial Invoker lacking the ability to divine the True Names of others). This takes the same time that it would take anyone else to divine the Invoker's name, though once an Invoker learns their own name, complete understanding is automatic and instant. An Invoker also knows immediately when another being utters their True Name, though they do not know who has done so or where they are. An Invoker can use their own True Name defensively or for an advantage in sorcery, effectively increasing one's Psyche by as much as a Rank, though doing so runs the risk of revealing it to another Invoker.
Calling
If a True Name is uttered aloud, the owner of that name will hear it, however faintly. If the being is asleep, they may hear it called in a dream; if awake, it may sound like a whisper or a distant shout. If the speaker is in the same shadow as the being named, the True Name will be heard distinctly and with a sense of "presence," no matter the physical distance, while if the speaker is far distant in Shadow, it will be muffled and indistinct (though still clearly identifiable as the being's name). No further message can be relayed by this means, but if the being named is familiar with the speaker, the speaker's identity will be obvious, and Invokers of sufficiently high Psyche can glean information about the speaker even if they have never met. Using a True Name in this fashion takes only the time needed to speak it aloud.
Summoning
If a being's True Name is known, that being can be summoned to the Invoker's presence from any distance. Summoning takes a number of hours equal to the days it would take to divine the being's name, and can be accomplished through deep meditation, magic circles, song and chanting, or whatever other means suits the training and personality of the Invoker. An unwanted summoning can be resisted with a Psyche battle; if the summoned being wins, no further summons by the same Invoker will affect that being until circumstances have changed, such as bringing additional magic or other power to bear on the task. Otherwise, the summoned being infallibly knows the direction of the Invoker summoning them (even if the Invoker moves), and is compelled to travel in that direction by the fastest means they can arrange. This compulsion lasts until the Invoker dismisses it, or for a number of days equal to the hours spent in the summoning, and ends as soon as the summoned being arrives in the Invoker's physical presence. There is no compulsion for the summoned being to behave cordially toward the summoner, so the Invoker should be prepared for the worst.
Using in Magic
Knowing someone's True Name raises one's effective Psyche against that being by (at least) one Rank in any psychic conflict. Uttering a True Name in conjunction with casting a sorcerous spell serves as a psychic contact with the target. A True Name can also be used defensively to strengthen wards or shields against the named foe and to make countering their spells more effective.
Banishment
Just as a summoning compels the named being to travel toward the Invoker, a banishment forces the named being to flee the Invoker's presence. Resisting this compulsion pits the Invoker and the named being against each other in a Psyche battle. An Invoker with a weak Psyche will only be able to force the target to leave their immediate proximity, while an Invoker with a great advantage in Psyche over the being named may impose the desire to travel far, far away, possibly even through Shadow. The Invoker cannot instill a desire to travel to any particular place, only to go away.
Evoking
A True Name can be evoked to produce a potential result in another being or environment. For this to work, the target of the evocation must have some sort of powerful affinity (love, hate, blood relation, etc.) toward the being whose True Name is uttered. An Invoker might use the True Name of an angel to ward against demons, or the True Name of a ruler to raise the morale of those loyal to that ruler, potentially even to afford some minor blessing or remove a curse if the being named is sufficiently potent. In Attribute-based conflicts, evoking a suitable True Name may give the Invoker a boost of up to one Rank.
Compelling Obedience
A True Name can be worked into a magical geas, laying a compulsion on the named being to follow some course of action in a manner similar to summoning or banishment. Creating a geas requires the target's True Name and takes a number of hours equal to the days it would take to divine their True Name. The instructions given by the geas must be detailed and explicit; although the target and the Invoker need not have any language in common, any semantic loopholes in the imposed constraint give the target a chance to act outside the Invoker's intentions. A geas is automatically successful against a target with Chaos or lower Psyche, but requires a successful Psyche battle against any ranked target; if the intended behavior goes strongly against the target's nature, the target will have an effective boost to their Psyche in such a conflict—it is difficult to compel a pacifist monk to commit murder, for example.
Binding
Perhaps the most hostile use of a True Name is to bind the named being to obey the Invoker's will. This requires hours of preparation equal to the days it would take to divine the target's True Name, and is always a hostile action requiring the Invoker to defeat the target in a Psyche battle. If the named being loses the conflict, it is bound to obey any orders given to it by the Invoker for a period of time dependent on the Invoker's Psyche advantage: a close match means the binding period will be short and contentious, while an overwhelming advantage can bind the target for a long time and enforce obedience to the spirit as well as the letter of the Invoker's commands. Orders that go strongly against the target's disposition, such as killing a loved one, may result in a renewed Psyche battle. The binding can be dismissed by the Invoker at any time, and remains in effect only as long as the Invoker maintains some degree of focus on it; the Invoker can sleep and cast spells, for instance, without affecting the binding, but might lose control of their bound servants if they suffered amnesia or other considerable psychic trauma.
Purification
An Invoker can use their own True Name to cleanse themselves of any deleterious magical or spiritual effects by reinforcing the core truths of their identity. This takes a number of minutes equal to the number of days it would take to divine their True Name.
Changing a True Name
This rare and arduous process can only be attempted against a target with no Attributes at 10 points ("Amber rank") or above. It requires a complex ritual and either the complicity of the named being or an overwhelming advantage in both Psyche and Endurance. The ritual consumes an amount of time equal to the time it would take to understand the new True Name, and requires the same continuous concentration as divining a True Name, with uninterrupted access to the being whose name is being rewritten. Once this is done, the target is effectively a different being, and its former True Name has no meaning; other Invokers must repeat the process of divining its True Name before they can affect it, and the True Name is automatically considered to be concealed. The being's personality, behavior and even biological form can be altered in the process as well, should the Invoker so desire.
Advanced Powers
Each of the following powers requires the Invoker to have mastered all the powers of Basic Invocation.
Combining Invocation with Other Powers
Partial Cost: 5 points
This ability allows an Invoker with other powers to do things like hanging spells on a True Name (with Sorcery), temporarily disguising their True Name (with Advanced Shape Shifting), drawing a Trump based on someone's True Name without ever seeing them (with Trump Artistry), or other experiments that might be conducted in-character.
Purify Other
Partial Cost: 5 points
This ability allows an Invoker to extend the benefit of Purification (above) to another being whose True Name they know. This takes time and effort similar to Summoning, and may be resisted by an uncooperative target's Psyche.
Grant True Name
Partial Cost: 5 points
The Invoker with this ability can assign a True Name to something that would not otherwise have one: a place, for example, or an entire shadow (should the Invoker be familiar with the multiverse of Shadow). The time required to do this is set by the GM. Once the True Name is in place, it can be manipulated and used in all the usual ways appropriate to any True Name.
Revoke True Name
Partial Cost: 10 points
Prerequisite: Grant True Name
The most feared ability of an Advanced Invoker is the power to strip away a being's (or item's) True Name, leaving it metaphysically hollow, but also invulnerable to any other uses of Invocation unless it is granted a new True Name. This requires the same time as Changing a True Name, and is always resisted by the target's Psyche (even if they are willing).
Speed Increments
Each 20 points spent on improving Invocation speed cumulatively halves the time required for Divining, Understanding, Compelling Obedience, Binding and Changing a True Name. An Invoker may spend no more than 60 points this way (reducing time to one-eighth normal). An Invoker must have a complete understanding of Basic Invocation before acquiring any speed increments.
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