Halakhic Day
Mythic Historical - The Talmud and later sources are full of discussions of when night actually starts. This post makes this area of Jewish thought relevant to Hermetic magi. Rabbi Yaphet is a historical figure about whom we know very little, except that he lived in Akko and served as a guide to Maimonides in Eretz Israel.
As a freshly gauntleted maga, Andronika of Bonisagus was assigned by her house to travel from her home in Thebes to the Levant and to research the Hermetic durrations there. The durations were created by Bonisagus in the early days of the Order, and he derived them from earlier Mercurian and Greek philosophical traditions. They seemed baked into the fabric of the universe - dependent largely on the movement of the heavenly bodies across the sky - and therefore beyond the limits of Hermetic Magic to change. Andronika felt that there was little to learn from such research, but a young Bonisagus is expected to follow the agenda of her house until she gets a bit more seasoning.
Andronika focused on the Sun duration, as it is a commonly used duration in Hermetic magic. Through careful study and measurement Andronika confirmed what most Hermetic magi assume without being taught - that the duration of a Sun spell ends when the Sun crosses the horizon from the perspective of the caster of the spell. This had some interesting side effects: if the caster ascended to a height of five thousand feet then her Sun duration spell will last one minute longer than it would on the ground. Andronika’s attempts to confirm this nearly killed her, as an unfortunate magical accident sent her plummeting down from the clouds. On Heights, Her tractatus on Magical Theory which related the experiment was not widely read.
Her duties to her covenant proved a relief from her seemingly pointless research. She traveled frequently to Akko, where she made the acquaintance of a Jewish numerologist who had some small magical talent, though sadly no hint of the Gift. None-the-less, Andronika found her discussions with Rabbi Yaphet to be very interesting, and the two of them spent many hours over tea discussing matters of philosophy and the works of both Aristotle and Rambam.
During one of those discussions Andronika realized something that was so ordinary to both herself and Rabbi Yaphet that they had never remarked on it, but that was so fundamental that it could prove revolutionary. The Jewish day and the Halakic day did not end at the same time! The Halakhic Day ended only at night, while the Hermetic day could end at sunup or sundown. More interesting to the researcher, the Hermetic day ends when the sun crosses the line of the horizon. But there is very little change in ambient illumination at this moment - it does not start to get dark for several minutes more. The Jewish day is marked by the darkening of the sky. When the sky is black enough that three fixed starts can be seen then the Jewish day ends. Curiously the start of Jewish night actually happens earlier - at the same moment as the Hermetic transition, when the sun crosses the horizon. This difference is needed because of Shabbat - it is very important that Shabbat not start too late, never after sundown, but it also can’t end too early, so it must wait for the sky to darken. In this way Shabbat lasts a full 25 hours - not 24..
Importantly, the Halakic day overlaps itself. Hermetic magic has a period of lapse every sunrise and sunset - the Parma Magica, and other effects, drop and must be recast unless they are being sustained by an item. Further, lazy Hermetic magic may simply sleep past dawn. This presents a moment of brief vulnerability for every Hermetic magus. If the power of the Halakhic Day could be leveraged, then magi would be able to raise their Parma Magica in the period of twilight, before their Parma failed. They would be protected without any gap until the next evening
Andronika documented all this in a letter to Durenmar. It proved to be her last correspondence.
New Duration: Halakhic Day
A spell with duration Halakhic Day that is cast before sundown is simple - it lasts until the sky is dark. A spell cast after sundown but before it is dark lasts through the next sunrise and sunset, and lasts until is is fully dark again. The sky is dark enough to end the Halakhic Day duration when three stars would be visible under normal conditions. This counts only proper stars, not the wandering planets. The exact amount of time between sunset and darkness varies by location and time of year, but its about 30 minutes. This is plenty of time to renew spells that might otherwise have a gap if cast regularly.Magi who live in the north of Mythic Europe will find that the time difference between sunset and night can be quite long, especially near the solstices. In Troyes it stretches to 45 minutes, while in Edinburgh it can last for an hour. In the far north, in towns like Trondheim there is no full darkness for several weeks at a time. In theory a spell with the Halakhic Day duration could last for a month this way. In practice Hermetic Magi with this ability have not made it that far north, and if they did they would be subject to a large number of botch dice as the limits of this magical understanding are stretched to the breaking point.
The exact time between sunset and darkness roughly corresponds to the start of Nautical Twilight. This can be calculated for the location of your covenant at Sunrise and Sunset Calculator.
Halakhic Day is the equivalent to Sun.
New Minor Hermetic Virtue: Halakhic Day
You may design spells with the Halakhic Day duration.
Story Seed: Bruria, Rebel Against the Order
The covenant finds out that Andronika has disappeared. Perhaps Durenmar asks them to go looking for her, perhaps they find out from a Redcap, or something else as appropriate to your saga. Her sodales can inform the player characters that she resigned from her covenant, but that she might be found in the city of Akko. Indeed, they can find her there, in the small Jewish Quarter, with Rabbi Yaphet. Once in Akko they will discover that her admiration for Judaism has blossomed into an attempt to convert. Rabbi Yaphet is reluctant, but he is allowing her to stay in the Jewish Quarter and live the life of a Jew, under the name Bruria. The prospective giyoret, convert, has sworn off Hermetic magic in an attempt to live according to halakhic principles. Will the Order consider her to have officially left, which would make her guilty of a High Crime? Can the Order allow her to walk away given that she might share the Parma Magica with her new Jewish community? What about her potentially useful research? Will she be willing to share what she has learned with the covenant? What has Bruria actually learned?
Two options are presented for the integration of the Halakic Day virtue into the story and mechanics of a saga. One or both may be used:
New Original Research - Halakhic Day
The Halakhic Day duration is a Major Breakthrough that allows the Halakhic Day virtue. While normally a new duration is a Minor Breakthrough, the fact that the Halakhic Day lasts twice as long as the normal Sun duration for the same effect on spell level, combined with the fact that it allows for continuous effects makes it a Major Breakthrough. That said, the story guide may want to reduce the difficulty of the breakthrough somewhat. The initial breakthrough, if it is achieved, can be extended in several ways. A second Major Breakthrough would incorporate the Halakhic Day duration into Hermetic Theory, obviating the need for a virtue. A third Major Breakthrough is probably the most sought after goal - it would allow the Parma Magica to be erected with the Halakhic Day duration, creating an aegis that lasts 25 hours.
New Mystery Cult - Hermetic Halakha
The Halakhic Day duration is an ability granted by a Mystery Cult invented by Andronika. In conversation with Rabbi Yaphet she understood some of the mysteries of Rabbinic halakah, and found a way to incorporate these into Hermetic magic. Before leaving the Order to become Bruria she founded a small Mystery Cult by initiating herself. She initiated one or two others as well, so the cult continues, but it keeps itself secret to avoid associating itself with a potential rebel against the Order. Rabbinic Law is the skill utilized by this Mystery Cult. Currently the cult has only two initiation scripts, both of which initiate the Halakhic Day guideline. The cultists seek to find other ways that Halakah can be integrated into Hermetic magic.Self Initiation - this is the script that Andronika used to initiate herself into the cult. She successfully experimented to discover the sympathetic bonus needed for her to reach her needed total of 18.
+1, Andronika’s Presence
+2, Andronika’s Rabbinic Lore at the time of her self-initiation.
+3, a Quest in which the Initiate must travel to the tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs in Hebron and successfully observe the stars from there at each of the four Jewish New Years. This requires skirting the Christian and Muslim authorities in what is often a warzone as well as dealing with the angels that guard the tombs.
+9, the Initiate undergoes an Ordeal, living with a Jewish community for a year in accordance with halakha and gaining the Major Story Flaw Jewish Nefesh.
+3, sympathetic bonus for completing all stages of the script while observing Shabbat faithfully.Self Initiation - this is the script that Andronika subsequently developed to initiate others into the cult. The initiation total must equal 15 to teach a minor virtue that the mystagogue knows.
+1, Andronika’s Presence
+3, Andronika’s Rabbinic Lore at the time of her initiation of others.
+3, a Quest in which the Initiate must travel to the tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs in Hebron and successfully observe the stars from there at each of the four Jewish New Years. This requires skirting the Christian and Muslim authorities in what is often a warzone as well as dealing with the angels that guard the tombs.
+3, the Initiate undergoes an Ordeal, living with a Jewish community for a season in accordance with halakha and gaining the Minor Story Flaw Sympathetic to the Jews.
+3, sympathetic bonus for completing the script while observing Shabbat faithfully.
+1, spending time serving a local Jewish community.
+1, giving tzedakah, charity, to support poor Jewish children attending the beit midrash.With Bruria’s departure as the head Mystagogue the cult is seeking new connections with the Jewish world to teach them Rabbinic Lore and provide places where the Ordeal may be undertaken.