Magick Rituals and Augmentations

  Ritual magick in Everwealth is an art as old as The Arcane itself, a solemn, volatile dance between mortal precision and the currents of unseen power. Unlike basic spellcraft, which flows from trained instinct or immediate need, rituals require preparation, environment, and risk. They are long-form expressions of intent: magick made patient, layered, and often irreversible. Whether drawn in sand with bone-dust or chanted beneath ley-fed shrines, these rites tap into deeper energies, shaping the impossible into fact. But their price is steep, and the consequences for missteps are rarely kind. In a land fractured by The Great Schism and stitched together with fear, desperation, and half-remembered gods, rituals endure, because nothing else works as well when everything is falling apart.   Core Components and Influences: Leylines & Arc-Nodes:
Invisible conduits of Arcane energy that twist beneath the earth like veins in an ancient corpse. Where they intersect, at arc-nodes, rituals become significantly more powerful, or unstable. Some sites breathe with raw magic, crackling through bone and breath. Rituals conducted at these places can reshape forests, breach Otherworld veils, or stop a heart with a whisper. But such places are rare, and fiercely protected by the Scholar's Guild and power-hungry warlocks alike.   Temporal Conditions:
Time shapes ritual like wind carves canyon. Examples include:

• Eclipse Nights: Said to thin the barrier between realms. Rituals of summoning or sight are especially potent, but prone to "bleed," where unwanted things arrive or remain.

• The Ember Hour: Final hour before sunset. Enhances fire magicks, emotion-binding, and acts of vengeance.

• Solstice Rites: Empower longevity spells, land-warding, and memory-binding enchantments.

• The Hollow Morning (midwinter dawn): Enhances divination and soul communion, but often causes fainting or partial amnesia.

  Sacrifices and Anchors:

• Memory Offerings: Forgetting a loved one in exchange for power.

• Flesh-Tax: Scarring, bloodletting, or organ-loss. Popular among hedge-warlocks.

• Anchor Tokens: Objects linking caster and spell, bones, hair, names written in ash.

• Soul-Tethering: Forbidden rites involving familial or romantic bonds to stabilize or feed a spell across years.

  Spatial Amplification:
Locations echo with what happened there. A healing ritual done in a ruin filled with grief may warp into necromancy. An enchantment sung inside a child's toybox might echo lullabies long gone. Ritual circles carved into battlefield stone remember the screams of the fallen.   Arc-Branding:
Permanent runes burned into the body, often using ichor or relic-ash. These serve as pre-built anchors or triggers, allowing casters to call on major rites instantly. Though effective, they leave the user increasingly vulnerable to Magebane and arcane possession.   Ritual Possession:
The ultimate desperation rite. A willing host invites a spirit, deity fragment, or forgotten name into their flesh. Some survive, perform miracles, and fall silent forever. Others are never seen again. Or worse, seen too often.   Philosophy & Enforcement:
While some mages see ritual magick as the height of personal expression and devotion, The Arcane Coalition and The Knights of All-Faith view it with equal parts reverence and terror. Most city-states ban unsanctioned rites, especially those involving blood, summoning, or permanent change. Yet in the wilds, in ruins, or behind boarded doors, rituals persist. Because when your child's soul is fading, or you need a demon to burn your enemies, a proper chant and a silver knife are sometimes the only laws that matter.