“With my ritual and my words, spoken in the dark and most holy tongue, I can embrace you wherever you be – more tender than the lustiest of imaginings, or so tight that your head might burst. The choice is mine. The power is mine. Fear me, for I am the new God.”
Liette Drus, human arcanist, fallen of Beyella Divinity
Overview
The following sections provide information on the flavor of magic in DARK LEGACIES as well as an overview of how the magic system differs from that in the core rules. Refer to Learning Spells, Casting Spells, and Spell Descriptions following this overview for complete rules on using magic in your campaign.
Nature of Magic
The origin of all magic on Earth is Azrae and the Abyss. It is said that magic is the soul of Azrae, and that each demon is given life by being invested with a portion of that soul. Demons and their subtypes have an inherent ability to wield magic in the form of spell-like abilities. Mortals gain access to magic through the science of arcanism, whereby they transmute demonic energy into spells through incantation and alchemy; this science is dangerous, often vile, used sparingly, and then only when the desired result could not be achieved through mundane means.
Unlike the Voice, which is specific to priests, arcanism is accessible to all characters, regardless of class. It is an unrestricted power, the practice of which has grown steadily since the Great War, much to the horror of the churches of humanity. Those that use it do so knowing that they practice a forbidden science that exists in violation of the laws of Deihass and the Faith, but among those that travel the dark road, the promise of unrestricted personal power outweighs all concerns of retribution for heresy.
Spell-like Abilities
The spell-like abilities of monsters – specifically demons – in a DARK LEGACIES campaign represent those creatures’ intrinsic ability to summon and command magical effects mentally. Spell-like abilities are unchanged from the core rules, and are not subject to any of the requirements for casting a spell as an arcanist. Thus, Spellcraft checks are unnecessary, components are not required, spell failure due to lost concentration results in no further consequences, spellcasting strain and damage from the casting process are not suffered, and taint is not accrued. The resulting effect of a spell-like ability may still cause damage or other consequences, however, such as the damage taken when changing form via shapeshift.
Unless otherwise noted in a creature’s spell-like ability description, using a spell-like ability requires a standard action. A creature may have a combination of spell-like abilities and spells that have been learned through arcanism. In this case, it must adhere to all of the rules and trappings involved when casting a spell as an arcanist; likewise, a creature cannot cast a spell-like ability as an arcanist spell unless the spell equivalent has been properly learned and the components are available.
Arcanism
The science of arcanism is the means by which all spells are learned and cast in DARK LEGACIES. Any character with Speak Language (Abyssal), at least 1 rank in Spellcraft, and who possesses the requisite materials can learn and cast spells by making a Spellcraft check. Dedicated arcanists receive a bonus to their Spellcraft checks along with other special abilities that facilitate greater spellcasting mastery. Failing a check to learn a spell can result in years passing before a character is able to cast it; failing a check to cast a spell often results in brutal side effects. Arcanism is a difficult, unforgiving, and inherently corrupting science, the product of which does not come naturally to mortals: when a character learns or casts a spell, he accrues taint, which represents the gradual degradation of his sanity and morals in the pursuit of limitless power; when he casts a spell, a character suffers ill effects in the form of nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, or worse.
Casting a spell requires that a character know the spell he is to cast and that he possess the necessary components. The first component of a spell is incantation, read aloud from passages of demon cuneiform. The second component is a material – usually a set of chemical reagents that act as a mundane catalyst for the desired effect, and a specific or symbolic object that is offered as a sacrifice in order to lure energy from the Abyss. The process is long, involved, and prone to failure; all spells have a casting time of at least one round in DARK LEGACIES, thus most spells are better suited to a controlled environment than the chaos of battle. When the two components are combined, demonic energy is channeled into the caster’s body. It is willful but chaotic, and surges through the blood and organs of the caster until it is finally given shape by the parameters of the spell and then channeled outward. More powerful spells require more energy, and therefore increased physical exertion on the part of the caster. If the spell parameters are incorrect or are poorly delivered, the channeled energy rejects the spell and continues to violate the body of the caster until expended, with the potential to inflict suffering, and even death, upon him and anyone near him.
Power of Magic
DARK LEGACIES is a low-magic campaign setting. As such, magic is rare, difficult to use, and extremely difficult or impossible to neutralize once invoked. There is no metamagic with which to increase a spell’s effectiveness, no spell resistance to guard against magic, no counterspelling, and no easy dispelling of magic. The same spell is rarely cast repeatedly within a short period of time, due to the extreme physical and mental cost of spellcasting and the obscure components required.
The power of a spell is in the spell itself; range, duration, effect, and saving throw are all determined by the spell or the spell’s level, rather than the caster of the spell or his level. A caster’s power instead comes from the ability to actually cast the spell – no easy feat in DARK LEGACIES. Most high-level spells demand such extreme precision and control of their summoned demonic energies that multiple characters are required in their casting, so as to minimize the risk of catastrophic spell failure. Some extremely accomplished arcanists can cast spells up to 7th level on their own, but dabblers are generally limited to 5th-level spells. Attempting to cast an 8th-level spell on one’s own is tantamount to suicide, and 9th-level spells are impossible to cast individually regardless of a caster’s expertise.
Even demons are limited in the scope of their spell-like abilities. Spells with open-ended effects, such as teleport and wish do not exist in DARK LEGACIES. Likewise, no creature, mortal or otherwise, has the ability to return a soul to its body after death; rather, similar spells result in the creation of mindless automatons, neither dead nor alive. Refer to Environmental Considerations, below, and the Spells section at the end of the chapter to assist in determining whether a given spell is suitable for inclusion in a DARK LEGACIES campaign.
Environmental Considerations
Earth has the unique condition of existing halfway between the mortal realm and the Abyss, with the latter located beyond the impassable coasts, behind a ridge of perpetual storm cloud that seethes on the horizon. There are no other planes of existence as far as the people of Earth are concerned, except for the paradise of Heaven that is promised to faithful worshippers of Deihass, unattainable until after their death. Because the Earth and the Abyss are effectively on the same plane, all creatures of the Abyss (demons) are considered to be on their home plane; they can still be called and dismissed from and to the Abyss with specific spells, but if they are killed on either plane, they are destroyed completely. Additionally, summoned creatures always originate from the Abyss, and they do not return there when the summoning spell’s duration expires; they must be manually dismissed with another spell. This second consideration is especially relevant to arcanists that mistakenly believe demons to be a disposable tool rather than the horrific threat they truly are. Lastly, plane-based concepts such as positive and negative energy, and travel through the astral or ethereal plane do not exist. There are some spells in DARK LEGACIES that behave in a similar fashion as spells that normally depend on these concepts, but they do so as unique entities with specialized effects.
Divine Magic
Priests use the Voice, rather than magic, to produce miraculous effects. This unique power, specific to priests, grants them supernatural abilities associated with their holy dominions, as well as the ability to augment their normal voice beyond human limits. Though priests have used the Voice freely for three thousand years, new questions as to the roots of this power have emerged as a result of a growing awareness of arcanism among the general populace. Similarities are drawn between the two powers, suggesting that the Voice is perhaps just a different kind of magic: “divine magic”. Such controversial views are generally kept private, however, as they attract vicious retribution from religious authorities.
Regardless of the fact that the Voice and magic both produce fantastic effects, the two are dissimilar in the manner in which they affect the world: magic manifests often-chaotic changes or circumstances that could not occur naturally, while the Voice is usually reactive, invoked to maintain or impose order. Likewise, each has their strengths and weaknesses: magic is generally more diverse, able to produce appallingly far-reaching effects, but it cannot in any way disrupt the Voice; the Voice, on the other hand, has limited potential compared to magic, but can disrupt both magical effects and the magical abilities of demonic items of power.
Magic Items
Generic magic items do not exist in DARK LEGACIES. Rather, there are items of power, identified as either demonic or holy. All items of power are extremely rare and generally of lower power than standard magic items found in the core rules. Items of power have a maximum of four qualities, where a quality is a specific ability or embedded spell-like ability, or a point of bonus, such as an ability score bonus or attack bonus. Additionally, no item of power can have greater than a +2 bonus of any one given type. However, the bonuses and effects of items of power do stack with those of masterpiece qualities.
Demonic items are created by a torturous process of binding a demon into a mundane item through spells and sheer will. Anyone with access to a deconstructed demon (see deconstruct into spell form), the requisite Spellcraft skill, nerves of steel, and the Create Demonic Item feat can create a demonic item of power. However, just as with casting powerful spells, the process of creating a demonic item inflicts temporary and permanent ability drain on the creator. Additionally, all demonic items are cursed with inherent side effects due to the constant struggle of the bound demon to be free. These effects can be localized to the user, who might suffer taint-like effects while wielding the item, or they can affect the world at large, causing severe environmental distortions and mass hysteria.
Holy items of power are free of such side effects and therefore more desirable, but they can only be created by priests – specifically, priests with the Consecration dominion – through the Voice and prayer. The creation of holy items is similar to the creation of demonic items, however, in that it requires a permanent sacrifice on the part of the creator. Experienced consecrators retire from service as emotional blanks, drained of their personality and the very ability to use the Voice. Holy items are closely guarded by the church that consecrated them, and are almost always loaned rather than given away. When holy items are stolen or not returned in due course, bloody retribution is visited upon the culprits and any presumed accomplices that stand in the way of retrieval.
If the Campaign Guide doesn't take home an ENnie next year, I'll be sorely dissapointed. It's damned gorgeous, if I do say so myself. 
