Faerie

Troupes not using the Faerie Rite rules could instead use the Hermetic system, under the following rules.

A character using Egyptian writings does not understand the underlying powers he is invoking, and so cannot change any of the decisions made by the original author. The spell's Range, Target, and Duration are therefore fixed. Once any required preparation is complete, the character must make a Communication + Coptic roll against an Ease factor of 3 + (1 per 5 levels of effect).

The speaker's casting total is: Stamina + closest Form + closest Technique + Aura + stress dice (modified by Virtues and Flaws)

Casting total S	pell Level, Result
0 or more	Spell cast, lose one
	Fatigue level.
–1 to –10	Spell cast, lose 2
	Fatigue levels.
–11 to –20	Spell cast, lose 3
	Fatigue levels.
–21 to –30	Spell cast. Lose 4
	Fatigue levels and gain a
	Warping point.
–31 or less	Spell not cast. Lose 5
	Fatigue levels. Gain
	Warping points equal
	to Magnitude. If more
	than 2 points gained,
	check for Twilight.

Remember that an Egyptian book is a series of related scrolls kept together; assume each scroll contains a single effect.

These are being treated as casting tablets, for those troupes who use the Covenants supplement.

Transitionary magic items are not actually enchanted at all. They are a way for Faerie-aligned magicians, like those described in this section, to create items similar to those available to Magically-aligned talisman makers. A transitory magic item is an object which has supernatural properties, but only for a single use, and, in many cases, for a particular user designated at the moment of the item's creation. The two most common forms of this in Ancient Egypt were temporary amulets, and liquid which affected the drinker.

Temporary Amulets

A temporary amulet is not actually enchanted – rather it is an object on which a spell with the Until Duration has been cast. This Duration, only available to Faerie Magicians, allows an effect to continue indefinitely until a condition is met. In this case, the spell continues Until the amulet has been worn and discarded. Unworn amulets are often found in tombs. Some of the more skilled grave robbers can compare their contents and inscriptions to temporary amulets previously used, and determine their likely effect. Unlike modern items with Until durations, Egyptian talismans do not lose their power when their creator dies: this may be because many are created by faeries on behalf of mortals, or are mocked up by faeries slightly before their modern discoverers arrive.

Most temporary amulets are small, linen bags filled with magical ingredients, then painted with mystical words. At their simplest, the spells enhanced the medicinal properties of the objects within the bags, but temporary amulets offering protection from spirits, healthy childbirth and fortune in war are all regularly retrieved. The contents of the bags are sometimes understandable in Hermetic terms, due to sympathetic magic. More often the contents are reflections of Egyptian beliefs, given power by faeries.

Many temporary talismans contain un-

clean things, in the belief that this will scare spirits away. Pieces of preserved dog, various types of dung, and menstrual blood are used to keep away faeries with Ward flaws. The demons of the underworld live backward to normal people, and have mouths in their anuses and anuses in their faces. Honey, which is sweet to the living, is bitter to them, and can be used to scare them away. They are also repelled by garlic, the name of which sounds similar to the word "harm" in ancient Coptic, and the similarity of individual cloves to monstrous teeth threatens them.

Merinitia magi argue that the statue is, of itself, not magical. Consider a typical magical statue of this type: a cippus of Horus. When water is poured on this statue, and collected as it trickles off, it becomes a powerful medicine. From the perspective of a Hermetic Faerie Magus, the statue of Horus isn't really a magic item: it's a clever way of making an open offer to nearby faeries.

The bargain works like this: if the faerie transforms the water into a powerful medicine (using a power with an Until duration) then that faerie may feed on the fear, hope and worship of the family whose member desperately needs healing. If the faerie has expended so much Might it can't make the deal, then some other faerie can and so for that family, the new faerie acts as the god. If no faerie wants the deal, then the person just gets water. When he dies, people say he was shunned by Horus for some secret and dreadful sin, and faith in the water is maintained by the survivors who have been cured.

Although the priests creating the statues often gave them cosmetic powers using Faerie Rites, a statues might be completely mundane. The humans coming to pour water over it have a narrative in their minds which the faeries can read and respond to.If the narrative dies out, a faerie which wanted to rekindle it might use its powers to send dreams, or make the statue talk.

Seals

Seals are a form of temporary magic item. They either maintain a spell, by being the focus of an Until Duration (that, like Egyptian talismans, does not end at the deal of the caster), or they act as wards. Egyptian seals of this type are remarkably similar to Watching Wards. A spell is contained inside, and maintained by, a ritual cast upon the seal. When a precondition named at the casting of the ritual is met, the spell is cast. In most cases, this is the breaking of the seal, but sometimes touching, moving, or illuminating a seal is sufficient to trigger its effect.

Touch played an important part in sealing. Some Egyptian wizards carried ivory staves with hands on the ends, to allow them to touch things more conveniently. In some cults, these devices were talismans, in others a new way of extending the Touch range, and in yet others, a symbolic hand for the Faerie god, so that it did not have to leave its temple to touch things and manifest its powers.

Temporary Potions

Most temporary potions were made by pouring either water or beer over a statue which housed a faerie, in the belief that magic would infuse the fluid. The most powerful objects for this purpose were specially-designed statues of the god Horus, which are called cippuses. Each statue provided a single effect. Other gods could similarly assist their followers, and different gods, with different spheres of divine influence, provided a range of effects.

Some magicians preferred to paint or carve the words into a bowl, and then pour water over these words. In some instances this is the creation of a temporary potion, and bowls of this type still work if nearby faeries understand the deal on offer. For others it was simply a form of ceremonial spell casting, at Touch Range, and these bowls can't function without a Gifted user casting a spell.

Egyptian spellcasters thought that magic radiated from the spoken word, and therefore was, for a time, powerfully concentrated in the tongue. They developed odd little techniques which might aid magi, if incorporated into Hermetic theory. These tricks are described in rare texts, which a character must journey to find.

Some priesthoods, aware of how touchy their gods were, found a way to protect themselves. It involves drawing a skilled portrait of the Goddess of Truth on the tongue. This prevents the character from lying, but it also prevents the character saying false words. A faerie god weaker than Maat, who was considered to embody one of the foundational principles of the universe, was required to play along, and take no offence, if the magician mispronounced words.

A character able to discover how the Mystery of Maat was performed can create a little possessing faerie that sits in the mind of the magus while he casts spells. The faerie checks his words for mispronunciations and corrects them, so that so that botches are less likely. Being possessed by a tiny faerie may, however, have personality altering effects.

Saliva and Breath Ranges

When heka is spoken, magic is created, and flows through and over the tongue. This makes anything in contact with the tongue powerfully magical. Egyptian wizards could cast spells more easily if they spat or breathed upon the target than if they touched them. Treat this as equivalent to Personal range, but without circumventing Magic resistance as Personal spells do. This was less powerful than it initially appears, because people were aware of this and so shielded themselves. Even in Mythic Europe it's believed that saliva and breath can carry curses (because some faeries can use shared fluid or breath to create Arcane connections).It would, however, make some Spontaneous Hermetic spells markedly easier. There is no record of the magicians bottling their breath or saliva to delay the activation of spells.

Classical authors mention that the Egyptians had a strange art, not recorded elsewhere, of bringing the statues in their temples to life, and of using the statues to create transitory magic items. To secular magi, this entails convincing a faerie to enter into a statue and stay there, performing various tasks. In exchange it is fed vitality by the effect it has on the lives of the people it affects, and through their worship. Technically, the statues are not magical at all: they are just matter the faerie spirit has sheathed itself in.

The lectors performing this task often had no theoretical framework for their actions. Those in larger temples often followed a detailed series of written instructions. Those in smaller sects were guided by a highly cognizant faerie, repeating steps taken by priests in the larger temples. The method of consecration is currently lost to humans, but could be found if a temple li-

There are two famous examples of this power, known even to the storytellers in the streets. A magician-prince once made a miniature boat and crew out of wax, then breathed life into them, and sailed up the Nile to fight an enemy. A different magician, whose wife was unfaithful, left a wax crocodile with his steward. When the steward saw the wife and her lover meeting by the lake, he threw the crocodile into the water, and it dragged the lover away. When questioned by the pharaoh, the magician had the lover dragged back from the afterlife by his crocodile, then turned the crocodile back into wax. When the pharaoh had questioned the lover and was certain of his guilt, he bade the magician turn the figure into a crocodile once again, and it dragged the lover to the Egyptian version of hell a second time.

brary is uncovered intact. Some faeries may, alternatively, recall it. Statues of gods made in this way may attract the attention of demons, who seek to force out and replace the faerie, or the wrath of the Divine, which prohibits the worship of false gods.

Some few chief lectors, beloved of the gods and therefore privy to their secret need for humans, created new consecration rituals. Each ritual creates a narrative, and if the priest convincingly performs it, so that a faerie may feed on the emotions of the congregation, the new statue is functional. This requires a Communication + Folk Ken roll against a target of 18. The texts that describe the consecration of new statues are

One way to force a faerie into performing a service, often used by these magicians, is to offer an alternative bargain to a second faerie. The best described form of this is "If you do not do what I say, I will turn the world upside down and drag the afterlife into the world of the living." When this has actually occurred, an area is filled with cthonic faeries who kill humans, or drag them off to be tortured in Faerie.

What the magician thinks he is doing is saying to a faerie god "Do what I want, or I'll let this other god do it, and pay him back by letting his creatures eat your followers." The presence of two powerful gods creates a weakness in the world, which touches Duat and allows easy Spiriting Away. The magician then tips the scales in favor either of the initial god, or of the cthonic beings, by influencing nearby people.

Hermetic magi, who doubt faeries have consistent roles, suggest that in this case, the magician is creating a very powerful narrative. They believe, however that the faerie god grants or declines the agreement based on the unspoken, or perhaps even unconsidered, desires of the magician. The consuming, cthonic faeries may be the initial god and his court, merely shifted into the roles which the magician has, himself, given them.

actually choreographies for rituals which aid the character making the Communication roll. Performing the ritual in a temple with a Faerie aura, or while miraculous things are occurring due to faerie rites read by other priests, also aids the roll.

Intermediary Statues

Some of these priests also consecrated temple statues for themselves. The ghost of the priest is bound to, and may animate, the statue after death. In exchange for offerings from supplicants, it agrees to take prayers to the gods in their homes. Other servants, like guards and spies, might have similarly been honoured with statues to anchor their ghosts while in this world.