ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

The rules described for certamen in The Book of Shadows are complex, dramatic, imaginative — and very unusable. They require Adepts of all Spheres to inscribe the certamen circle, and the presence of an Adept of Prime for the actual fight. Such concentrations of magickal skill are rare today, and it seems likely they were not that common even during the Mythic Era. When mages met in the past, they could not travel far to possibly hostile Chantries to settle their differences. It would appear even more unlikely that a highly elaborate system of certamen would be used by all mages. This is an attempt to revise the system to make it more usable.

There are two main forms of certamen, the competition and the struggle (certamen proper and contentio). Competition was mainly used to establish the occult pecking order by demonstrating who was the most skilled and powerful mage, while the struggle was a direct magickal duel between the opponents about more serious matters.

It should be noted that certamen duels are largely a thing of the past outside the greater Chantries. Today most mages are more desperate, and important differences are far too often settled in other, more final ways.

Certamen is most popular among the Order of Hermes (who often elaborate it into mystical rituals), the Akashic Brotherhood, the Verbena and the Dreamspeakers. The Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether have their own versions like Core Wars or the Battles of Science in the Gernsback Continuum, while the Cult of Ecstasy and Euthanatos usually regard the whole thing as a waste of energy. The Technocracy, of course, has strict prohibitions against this kind of frivolity, which might undermine the internal security of the Union.

The Competition (Certamen Proper)

In the competition, the challenged mage begins by creating a magickal effect. The challenger then has to outdo him, either by greater power, skill or style. The competition continues until one mage is unable to perform a greater feat of magick. In Chantries, it was common (and often demanded) to have an impartial judge who decided whose magick was the most impressive, but among mages in general the competition went on until one mage realized that he was beaten. Quite often the place of the certamen was regulated by Chantry rules, to minimize the risks to the Chantry or non-combatants.

The magick has to use the same or higher levels of Spheres as last time, decreasing the power is generally regarded as failure unless it is done very stylishly. Style is important, especially if the mages are closely matched. Coincidental effects are often regarded as a bit unworthy if the opponent uses vulgar magick, but sometimes a clever coincidence can decide a competition.

System

The challenged mage performs a magickal act. The challenger then has to do a comparable act that gains more successes than the challenged, who then has to outdo him and so on. He must use Spheres at the same level or higher than his opponent. If he continues on the same level, he can either create a new effect, hoping to overcome the successes of the other, or empower his previous effect perceptibly (as long as the previous successes + the new are greater than the opponent's, things are going well). Moving up to the next level of the Spheres does not require the mage to gain more successes as the opponent, as long as the result is perceptibly more advanced.

Example

Maria Placida of the Order of Hermes competes against Quintus Z of the Virtual Adepts. She begins by invoking a ball lightening (incidentally sending harmless but irritating static into the electronics of Quintus), Forces 3 Prime 2. She gains 3 successes and the ball fills the room with an eerie glow. Quintus has to do an effect at least on level 3, and uses Correspondence 3 Forces 2 to bring sunlight into the room. He gains three successes, and the ball lightening is outdone. Maria decides to scale up her effect and gains another 3 successes to scale up the ball lightening to a roaring sphere. Quintus answers in the same way, and makes the sunlight blinding with another 4 successes. Maria, a bit worried about his skill in Forces uses Forces 4 to make the ball sweep out through the open window and set fire to an old tree outside, hoping to create a huge conflagration. She just gains 2 successes, singing the tree, but it is a higher Sphere so she has not lost and Quintus now has to do something with a level 4 power. He decides to use Entropy 4 to turn the tree into dust (which would definitely be stylish and most likely end the struggle), but only manages 1 success. A small twig falls off. Maria laughs and mockingly asks, "Is that all you can do, oh Master of the Digital Web?"

Variations

Among hermetic mages the competition was common between apprentices, who loved to show off their powers to each other standing in a ring as a kind of game. When an apprentice failed, he left the ring and the others continued, until the most skilled remained.

The masters preferred a more abstract competition when they met, the competition of secrets. Instead of doing magick they revealed occult secrets to each other, trying to reveal a secret so great that the other was unable to beat it. In this way differences could be settled and information exchanged (or tricked away from secretive but unwary mages). The trick is to reveal the right secrets.

The Struggle (Contentio)

In the Struggle, the mages take turns interfering with or manipulating the magick of each other. One mage creates an effect and the other seeks to overcome it. This may be done directly, or in more "civilized" duels (called the philosophical struggle, Contentio Philosophus) symbolically: the mage shows an effect that could have defeated the effect, for example turning into a wolf when the other had turned into a cat. Unlike the Competition, the winner is usually decided by raw occult strength.

There have been numerous certamens of this kind that have ended in the death of one of the participants, either deliberately or accidentally. Sometimes the struggle turns into a real, dirty magickal fight. This has made many Chantries outlaw direct struggles. By tradition the defeated mage is forced to grant the winner one service, usually determined beforehand.

Interesting enough, this form of certamen has caught on among the spirits of the Western Court (in the Umbra), possibly due to knighted Masters from the Order of Hermes. Some spirits may be summoned for a certamen. Either the mage wins and can demand a service, or the spirit wins and can demand something (this can range from a tasty mouse to eat over a knight of Quintessence to the mage's firstborn child). A similar practice occurs among some of the more unwieldy spirits of the Middle Umbra which the Dreamspeakers have to deal with.

System

The mages have to create effects which defeat (or could defeat, in the philosophical struggle) the other's effect. The form of defeat may be direct (dissolving a pattern) or indirect, using the result of the effect (creating a cat to eat the mouse the other mage created). Direct effects require more successes than the effect (using a suitable combination of Spheres, for example Prime 4, Entropy 3 or Forces 4 to destroy a block of metal). Indirect effects do not require as many successes, but must be able to defeat the other effect somehow (for example, Matter 2 to create acid or Life 3, Spirit 2 to summon goblin smiths to destroy the metal block). If the opponent defeats the effect, then the mage has to either admit defeat or create an effect to defeat the opponent's effect (such as a barrel of alkaline solution or a goblin-eating snark to deal with the aforementioned effects).

Example

Ingiald Skald once trespassed onto the territory of Freya of Vardaträsk in his quest for the runes of Heimdallr. She challenged him to certamen. If he won she would tell him the secret of where to find the runes. If she won he would have to serve her for seven years. Ingiald threw his staff onto the ground, turning it into a snake (Matter 3, Life 3). Freya turned into a cat (Life 4) and killed the snake. Ingiald turned into a fierce wolf (Life 4), but Freya began to sing a sleep-giving galder-song (Mind 4, 2 successes) putting wolf-Ingiald to sleep (the rune-mage unfortunately lacked Mind to do countermagick). As he awoke, he was fettered by iron chains and was forced to submit to serving Freya for seven years (but in the end, he tricked her into revealing where to find the runes).

Variations

A classic form of the struggle is when the mages turn into different forms, trying to find a form the foe cannot resist. This was especially popular among Verbena, and still is used among Marauders (although the mad mages are unlikely to follow the same rules as the opponent).