Shardshaping
"It is said through magic all things are possible."
"No.", my master retorted.
"It is through the worldhex and the shards that all magic is possible. You cannot harness the ocean with a mug and a dream."
Uncovered Works
Early scholarly work in the shadow of the dying empire revealed many great feats of engineering to run the logistics to feed millions: Great stellar roads stretching across the heavens, deep abyssal pits to incarcerate titans, worlds tailor made for extinct species. Lost to time and tide, few of these great wonders exist in the present day Nebula and are fated to loom over the ruins of civilizations that built them. The Archmages, the Aldersisters and all of the pretenders of every realm scramble to find the knowledge of these old places and to leverage the secrets of the shards, any hint of a unifying truth or principle in this chaotic realm. To those vying for control, the mutable nature of the Aether and the shards proves to be a liability.
To the few pioneer arcanists, the shardshaping renaisance emerging from their body of work was a thankless expression of magic it's rawest form. Taking great personal and financial sacrifice they crafted simple arts to link the shards. The researched the old extinct species lost to natural disaster and overhunting from their old lands and built them habitats. Elders recreated their homelands from their memories broken by war. It was a period of peaceful revolution, until the hegemons saw faint glimpses of the true nature of this power held. Circles were disbanded and looted, shards were locked up and their secrets were swiftly disseminated across the Nebula to those that would leverage the power of creation.
Simplicity Complex
Shardshaping is an art that originated in the Primal Tradition of magic, but quickly grew beyond the bounds of Nature's laws. The principle is simple enough, using the power of Convergence, aetherial elements are used to create change in a shard's Fundamental Notions and Connectivity. Each act of shardshaping is an artful ritual, cast in the liminal spaces of the shard they want to effect. Using stockpiles of mana gathered from the Aetherial wilds, the desired outcome is emulated gradually til the desired outcome is mete. While these sanctums are often hard to reach, they are used to closely guard secret tells that can reveal the Fundaments of the shard to a patient researcher who can go on to create their shardshaping rituals.
Mechanics
The art of shardshaping exists as rituals players and npcs can initiate (rules found atPlayer Core 389)
. A shardshaping ritual has many of the features a normal ritual has for completion with some relevant requirements and reagents that are thematically needed for the ritual. Used in the bounds of the game world, shardshaping is one of the downtime activities that has a definitive effect on the world and the other players during their own explorations. Shardshaping rituals are also incredibly modular and use the base formulae linked below and can even incorporate keys from listed fundaments they find adventuring.
In a West Marches Environment, player investment should yield resources that can be used for shardshaping and the development of outposts across the Nebula. If downtime is calculated precisely in your campaign, the amount of days in a week should be used thusly, if an abstract voucher used it should be expended. A ritual should be learned before it is used and kept in the ritual portion of the character's sheet, if they do not learn it from an NPC or find it as loot it can also be created using the crafting rules. Player Core 237
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Each ritual should reach the approval of a DM before its creation is finalized.
Each ritual should reach the approval of a DM before its creation is finalized.
World in your image
Shardshaping is the art of changing a malleable and often carpricious world. By tapping into the ubiquitous magic that exists in the Nebula mortals can shape the world in their desired image. With enough resources and ingenuity behind it, any civilization can reshape the obstacles that would deal them hard, or erect new ones to insulate themselves. In times where shardshaping is a lost art, meticulously crafted and secured connections will be scarce and the world will be a blank canvas. During the height of a Nebular empire, shards will be developed far beyond their normal capacity from regular trade entering and leaving the limits of the city-shard. The regions between the shards in many such cases may even be populated.
It is the art of terraforming the world around you and changing how you associate with your neighbors and often which neighbors you have. It is often a means to find new resources and develop imperial infrastructure, but is also the reason to new resources and develop imperial infrastructure. With it is the methodology and the also the motivation to explore, develop and secure lands beyond your own. It can mean putting foreign folk under the yoke of oppression and the pillaging of their natural resources- or it can be a means to share with them the bounties of your own worlds.
Whether or not there is room for initiating shardshaping in your campaign, in a Nebular setting it can be a strong focal piece for villains or collaborators. Providing both mechanical background and cohesivity to the themes of the Nebula, it will create unique experiences for your tales of adventure and exploration.
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