The Old Powers are... and that's pretty much all you can say about them. They just kind of... are. They tend to be vast impersonal natural forces. Powers of the forest and the mountain, of the river and the sea. They are resolutely physical. Alone of the gods, the Old Powers seem to reside full time in the physical world. As you may guess from the name, Blood magic is a visceral business, and its practitioners tend to be very slightly barking mad.
More information on the Lady of Blood & Wine, the Spider-Queen(s), the King of the Eagles, the Lord of the Blood-Fury, the Lady of Battles, the Verdant Lord and the Lord of Sand & Stone can be found here on the Gods & Cults page.
The limit of Blood magic is, funnily enough, blood. The caster's blood. In great abundance. If you want to do Blood magic, you need to be injured. Injuries used to cast Blood magic cannot be healed by any means during or directly after the Encounter in which they are inflicted. Injuries used in Blood magic can be either self-inflicted or inflicted in combat, but either way it's a one use deal, and the injury used must have been inflicted during the Encounter in which it is used. Once you've got the juice from a wound, it's used up. In general Ordained Blood Sorcerors need to be less injured than non-Ordained ones, since they are drawing power from a greater force. The Old Powers tend not to take offence at non-Ordained Blood Sorcerors, in fact they seem not to notice them at all.
The other limit of Blood magic is the fact that it's inextricably linked to living things - it generally won't affect anything that's not corporeal and alive (such as spirits, undead and creatures of Glass), and tends to be considerably less powerful in the Burned Realm.
Blood Healing - Start as you mean to go on. The caster can heal body damage on either themself or somebody else by smearing the wound with their own blood. It's a one for one tradeoff, one hit's worth of blood heals one hit of damage on the target, unless the caster is Ordained, in which case it's two for one. It doesn't matter who drew the blood used, there are many tales of Blood Sorcerors charging into battle and using the blood from their wounds to heal themselves and continue fighting.
Blood Curse - This being the darker side of Blood magic, and one of the main reasons people are wary of attacking known Blood Sorcerors. The blood paid for this curse must have been drawn by either the caster or the person they're cursing. Note that the caster must use blood drawn from the same physical location as they wish to affect on the target, thus a spell to cripple a target's legs would require blood drawn from the caster's legs. A Blood Curse can have a number of effects, but most people tend to go for the direct damage approach; each hit's worth of blood put into the spell inflicts one hit of Through damage to a living target, ignoring armour. Ordained Priests of the Old Powers get a two for one deal again. Longer term effects, or more specific woes, are possible with GM approval.
Blood Cure - This spell requires one to five hits worth of blood, which must be drawn by the caster, and will cure the effects of any illness or poison (one for general fever or mild food poisoning, five for leprosy). The blood cost is halved for Ordained Priests of the Old Powers.
Blood Ties - This spell costs a single hit's worth of blood to invoke (a mere half for an Ordained Priest of the Old Powers), and this blood must be drawn by either the caster or the target of the spell. This spell binds the caster and the target together forevermore such that all damage inflicted upon the one is simultaneously inflicted upon the other. Healing between them is also shared. Between mutually consenting parties, this link may be suspended at will and forms a deep empathic bond. Please note that this spell is only broken by the death of one party, which may well kill the other member of the link as well, although a Blood Blessing (see below) could get rid of it and an alchemical potion against Blood magic could suspend its effects. Note that if somebody is Blood Tied to multiple people then the effects of each tie are calculated independently.
Blood of the Soil - This spell causes life to grow where the caster's blood falls. This is of immense use to farming communities, and adventurers could use it to break steel and stone if that floats their boat. The amount of life produced (it's always plants) and the rate of growth is determined by the amount of blood the caster puts into the spell. Ordained Priests of the Old Powers will get a doubled effect, but roughly speaking one hit's worth of blood produces grass, five gets a sapling, anything more than that is serious mighty oak territory. The blood used can be drawn by anyone.
Blood of the Beast - The caster inflicts one (or half for Ordained Priests of the Old Powers) hit of body damage to their torso and adopts the form of an animal. This animal must be mundane - that is to say it must be of a kind resident in the physical world and not the product of magical tampering or divine blood - but otherwise anything goes. Advantages vary. Small things get bonus Stealth and Dodges, big fierce things get extra hits and damage. Birds can fly, fish can breathe water, etc. Note that the caster's physical possessions don't transform with them.
Blood Vengeance - The big brother of the Blood Curse. This requires five (three for Ordained Priests of the Old Powers) hits worth of blood, inflicted by either the caster or their intended victim. The caster pronounces a curse. It will come to pass. This is, of course, subject to GM veto. Try to be mythic.
Blood Blessing - The opposite of the above. The caster must inflict five (three for Ordained Priests of the Old Powers) hits of body damage to themselves and pronounce a blessing. It will work, provided they're not clearly just trying to powergame. See all caveats above.
Blood Calls Out To Blood - The caster may call up one of the Old Powers. This will require anything up to ten hits of body damage, and the caster had better have a damn good reason for disturbing them. Ordained Priests get no bonuses on this one.
Blood Sacrifice - The caster sacrifices their own life. They can either kill themself or be killed by somebody (or something) else, either way they can do just about anything with the resulting power. Like all fifth level effects this is a big plot issue, and subject to much GM discussion. Effects should be in keeping with the rest of Blood magic, they should be about life, nature, blessings and curses and so forth.
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This page last updated: 3rd November 2004
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