Something I haven’t really got to grips with at Empire as of yet is coming up with spell vocals that don’t just sound lame in my head and consequently I avoid casting anything. Which is stupid. I haven’t actually heard anyone actually casting anything I don’t think so I can’t even steal something I heard from the field. So I appeal to those of a magical inclination or otherwise to help provide me with inspiration. It would be useful to hear from Highborn magisters in particular.
(Such is my plight that last time I attempted this it degenerated into ‘popular’ music lines e.g. “never gonna give you up” for create bond, “no go, walk out the door…” for repel and so on)
It goes:
By the rune-power of (appropriate rune)
By the rune-power of (another appropriate rune)
In the house of (appropriate constellation)
I cast [spell name]
Be [applicable adjective]!
Means that even though I have a lot of spells, I can cast most of them with minor variations: most of my magic is healing or support, so the constellation I invoke is usually the Chalice.
It also means that I have enough vocal material to be suitably declamatory/improvise with, if I need a ten second casting time.
For a roughly five second count (you have to be careful not to rush it, but if you want to be sure then ‘rune-power’ as mentioned above is good) then I use some variant on:
By my art and my will,
I invoke for
I invoke for to
So:
By my art and by my will, I invoke the rune Verys for strength, I invoke the rune Hirmok to grant me dominion over this battlefield. (For Entangle)
I’m a runesmith, so I’ve tried to keep it to chaining runes as far as possible. For the ten-count spells I tend to be more wordy and work the Heal or Mend or whatever into the final part of the spell vocal.
I usually stick to the ‘By my Art and my will’ along with the broad invocations, hand gestures are cool too! If I remember what the rune looks like at the time, I trace it in the air.
You have a limited number of spells, and only some of them will need casting in a hurry - if you make specific plans for your battlefield-type incantations and memorise those, you may well be able to cover Create Bond, Operate Portal and Detect Magic by just taking a few seconds to take a deep breath and plan out what you’re about to say. As a special bonus, this will make you look like you’re doing awesome roleplay of summoning up your inner reserves of will and magic to do a thing.
“I invoke the power of [thing] to [effect] the [target]” is a useful place to start.
As a Highborn, you may want to work with the transcendent power of the human soul as a general theme - “I invoke the power of my immortal soul to open the way beyond this world” is a decent way to open the portal to the Hall of Worlds, for example.
If you’re feeling super keen you could go for Historical Analogy - “As Atuman and Atun navigated across the sea, I navigate beyond this world” to go to the HoW, “As Korl forged and wielded the first tool, so do I bind this tool to your wielding” for Create Bond, “As Tian gave fire to her people, so do I rekindle the flame of life within you” for Heal, that sort of thing.
I’ve kept a winter theme in all mine, being a dirty little ghul.
“Frost’s bites swift heal shall numb the pain and wake the sleeper.”
“Winter’s black venom shall bring us to the edge of the labyrinth.”
“Blood of the people flows into the stone. Winter clenches with fist of frost. The stone cracks, the crevasse opens, the portal unbarred.” (Regio fisting ftw).
I really need to get less sarcastic with my Operate Portal spell vocals. They always start with good intentions (“By the light of wisdom and in the name of Atun the Navigator…”) and end with “…so I can bore myself once more half to death within the Hall of Worlds between realms” or similar.
I form the shape of a constellation in the air with my hands and intone:
“AS I HAVE ORDERED THE EARTH SO LET THE HEAVENS BE ORDERED. AS THE HEAVENS ARE ORDERED SO LET THE EARTH ORDERED BE.”
In a nice even tone that’s ten seconds; in a hurried gabble it’s five.
Operate Portal: Door and Key
Create Bond: Chalice
Detect Magic: Spider or Phoenix depending whether I intend to tell anyone else
Heal: Fountain
Purify: Fountain
Restore: Chalice
To break a bond I haven’t got a good constellation in mind yet, so instead I make the rune Yoorn on the item with two fingers and say “I INVOKE THE RUNE OF YOORN. LET THIS BOND BE BROKEN; LET THIS MAGIC BE UNDONE; THIS THING IS NOT YOURS”.
If I’m bonding one of MY items (or one of the Archmage items) to someone else I usually use something modelled on the vocal Raff used when he first gave out the Archmages’ staves: “THIS IS NOT YOUR [ITEM]; THIS IS [OWNER]'S [ITEM]; USE IT WELL AND RETURN IT IN THE SPIRIT IN WHICH IT IS GIVEN”. I do this a surprising amount.
Occasionally I nick the Egregore’s vocals for Open Portal, and then add another few lines on the end. Usually it’s something along the lines of “Open up I say! I shove my wand into the veil between worlds and it best open or I’ll kick your bloody door in!”.
Detect Magic, I tend to trace Ophis in the air and do something along the lines of “Ophis the bright Lantern, show me the magics, show me the nature of this thing before me”. This is mostly because I have a Detect Magic roleplay setup burned into my brain from 3 years of Treasure Trap and haven’t got round to Marcherising it.
Why not carry a small handbell if you don’t already have one, and use it to mark out your 10s for non-offensive spells by ringing it in time? That’s very Highguard.
For Repel, it’s a combat spell so I would suggest rote-learning a vocal you like for it so you’re not fumbling for ideas while trying to fight. I did this for another system where spell vocals were N words per level, so I could just tack a couple more words on the end for bigger stuff.
I’ve thought about bells, but unfortunately my ears really dislike the sound (I have the same problem with jangling keys) - I get some kind of weird effect (something to do with resonate frequency and small ear bones if I had to guess) if they are of the wrong pitch, which is a little off putting. And slightly awkward in Highguard. I sometimes feel I need to clarify that I am not in fact undead just because I have to put my hands over my ears!
Reminds me of overhearing a herald leaving the Hall of Worlds and finishing on the words, “City of Locks, I’m going to fuck you up.”
I know someone who tends to sing a snatch of song.
For Operate Portal I normally use something like “As day passes into night and night into day, and as each season passes into the next, so shall I pass from this place between realms back to my home.”
So it’s fine with a harmonious bell of a good pitch?
Because my character is Dawnish, all her incantations are short poems. Not good poetry, exactly, but poetry nonetheless. I tend to use the flowery names for the Runes instead of the actual runes themselves, and reference a constellation too; same as everyone else in that regard, it seems! (Which is great, I wondered if I was doing that right.)
So for example, her Heal incantation uses Rhyv, and the Phoenix and Fountain constellations:
Wash clean the blood with burning tears
of Firebirds and Fountainheads;
with Bloody Knives cut bloody threads,
from wounds, bring life; weave Glory here!
and her Mend uses Tykonus, the Gryphon runes (summer runes) or the Summer beast, and the Mountain:
In Mountains born, by rivers run,
in Bannered halls forged in bright flame;
the Gryphon’s gift by Noble claimed:
the shattered yet again made one!
I also have separate poems for all the different uses of Detect Magic, Open Portal, and Create Bond; I think overdramatic casting can be quite fun at times! (By which I mean you should almost certainly recite poetry. Maybe more formal-sounding poetry, instead, if you’re Highguard? )
