Regios within Regios

I am developing a location, a varient of Semita Eribunda, with regios that look like this:

  • Mundane - lvl 1 magic aura (connects to regio lvl 1)
  • Lvl 1 - Infernal (connects to mundane, 3a&b, and 5)
  • Lvl 3a - fairie (connects to 1)
  • Lvl 3b - divine (connects to 1)
  • Lvl 5 - magical (connects to 1 and 7) (covenant site)
  • Lvl 7 - magical (connects to 5 and a 2nd mundane site)

I have a story for this odd arrangement, but as a new SG, I'm wondering if there is any fluff examples of such an arrangement. Alternately, any good RAW/FAW that suggests such a thing impossible or problematic within canon?

I undertstand that YSMV, but I'm trying to stick (mostly) to canon at present, as I don't want to fiddle too much with what I don't yet fully understand, and I want my players to know the rules and setting as written.

I'm anticipating that this is not canon, but is not really a mechanics-breaker, so I'm thinking of describing it as a unique place within my Mythic Europe, the only known location where regio of multiple types exist within the same regio. If I later discover that such things are a dime-a-dozen in Stonehenge, or that moving between such boundaries would cause a person to explode, I might have to start mucking about with the rules or setting before I really want the training wheels to come off, hence the question.

I am not aware of such arragement existing. IIRC what exist are several regios / auras in the same place. However, the strongest one at any given time is the one that manifests,. supressing the others. A variable one sounds cool. I would be interested in knowing the background for such a regio. After all, regios are the "places where all the other rules are thrown out of the window" so I can see this being perfectly possible. In fact you can see Purgatory as a Ghost's regio with divine and infernal influence coexisting, so I would say it is not a stretch to mix all realms.

Cheers,
Xavi

As far as I am aware there is nothing that specifically contradicts your arrangement, but I think it does violate an implicit rule of regiones in that the layers mix different auras. I have no issue with multiple regiones of different realms arising from the same mundane location (although it would be unusual and a very special place, as you describe). However, I think you are proposing here a single regio with layers from different realms.

In a multi-regio system you would have instead:

  • Mundane with Magic aura 1
  • Infernal regio with level 1
  • Faerie regio with level 3
  • Divine regio with level 3
  • Magic regio with levels at 5 & 7
    There would be no direct communication between regiones of different realms, so to get from Magic 5 to Infernal 1 you would need to perceive two boundaries; one from Magic 5 to Mundane, and one from Mundane to Infernal 1. However, you could get something mechanically the same as your initial concept with some sort of customary ritual to pass between regio layers (as per ArM5, pages 189-190); so maybe there is a path that can be walked that leads from Magic 5 to Mundane, and this path also leads to Infernal 1, so it seems like that a character walking the path goes from Magic 5 to Infernal 1 directly -- but they would still pass through the base Magic aura of 1.

If you are relying on characters to see regio boundaries to cross them, note that both setups have a disadvantage if they are different realms. To see a boundary between a Magic aura of 1 and a Divine regio of 3 is 5 + (2x1 + 2x3)=13; more difficult than if the reams had matched: 5 + (2x2)=9. Magi would need separate spells, one for each Realm.

Whichever way you do it, it sounds like an interesting location!

Mark

Entry to a level that is not from the same realm as the one you are standing in might be tricky, though. IIRC auras factor in the roll to enter the next level, so here you cvan have huge bonuses/malus easily. We handwave regiones most of the time, so0 I am not sure about it, though.

Xavi

Indeed. If you are standing in a level 3 Divine regio trying to get to a level 1 Magic aura using Magic-aligned Second Sight, you not only need to achieve a roll of 13 to perceive the boundary (5 + 2x difference between auras), you are doing it with a -9 Aura modifier to your roll! At least if you are going the other way (Magic aura to Divine regio), you get a +1 bonus. Easy to get trapped, if you don't have an alternate route out!

As a result, most boundary crossings in our saga tend to take place with spells or with customary rituals or paths.

Mark

Remember that what is happening at a regio level can change the aura.

For example, imagine a system of three regios that "naturally" have Magic auras:
Mundane No Aura
Layer 1 Magic Aura 2
Layer 2 Magic Aura 3
Layer 3 Magic Aura 4

Then, some monks build a church and take up residence in Layer 2, and a group of infernalists hold a month of black masses sacrificing one thousand virgins in Layer 3. So, now the system looks like this:

Mundane No Aura
Layer 1 Magic Aura 2
Layer 2 Magic Aura 3; Swamped by Divine Aura 4
Layer 3 Magic Aura 4; Swamped by Infernal Aura 5

Now this is where I get confused. To me, the roll should be 9 and not 13. The difference between a Divine 3 and a Magic 1 is two, so twice two is four, then add five to get nine. Yet in your example (and the RAW) the aura strengths appear to be added rather than taking the difference.

Of course, you still have the -9 modifier which makes it brutal either way!

Eric

Divine and Magic Auras are in different "directions", so to find the difference you have to count back to 0 Aura. Divine 3, is 3 higher than 0, Magic 1, is 1 higher than 0, but in a different direction to the Divine aura. So the net difference is 3 + 1 = 4.

If you had a Magic Aura 3, and a Magic Aura 1, then the difference would be 2, because both Magic auras are in the same "direction".

Ah ha! That makes total sense now. Thanks for the clarification.

Eric

Wow. Lots of interesting rules responses. You guys are the best forum for any game ever. I'll examine those in more depth tomorrow to see if my concept still works (I think it does). Then I'll post a fuller description of the fluff.

I assume everyone here is familiar with the free published Semita Errabunda. As i recall (can't type here and read it at same time) Semita has
Mundane a (fixed)
Magic regio level 1 (looks similar to mundane a)
Magic regio level 3 (looks similar to a & 5)
Magic regio level 5 (covenant grounds)
Magic regio level 7 (looks like mundane b, appearance shifts in advance of mundane b shift)
Mundane b (anywhere in mythic europe. Connection from 7 shifts to new b over time)

So, that's what I started with. As I struggled to coceptualize regios in my mind, what was hardest was that ArM:5 is quite vague in describing the paths into a regio level and between regio levels. Now that RoP:M is on my shelf and RoP:F is on its way, this will be less of a problem. But a few weeks ago, as I was using Covenants to flesh out Semita Eribunda for my saga, my struggles to conceptualize the regio levels and my creative juices collided and produced something...interesting.

That is exactly what happened to my Covenant of the Wandering Path. The regio levels might have once all been magical, but changes have occured in response to events that occured within.

This is part of the reason for my earlier thread about second sight vs. Sense holy/unholy and magic sensitivity. When this came up on the first day of the campaign, I knew I needed to get the RAW nailed down and come up with some house rules to handle this situation, as it will be coming up a lot.

What I came up with was, in addition to second sight, 4 virtues, to sense holy, unholy, fairie, and magic. These virtues come in several flavors:

  1. Minor flaw: sense advances as ability. Vulnerable to same realm.
  2. Minor virtue a: sense advances as art. Vulnerable to same realm.
  3. Minor virtue b: sense advances as ability. Not vulnerable to same realm.
  4. Major virtue: sense advances as art. Not vulnerable to same realm.

By default the source of all these is magical, but in theory any could be sourced from any realm. The campaign is high fantasy so these senses will be fairly common and useful, and the covenant has been actively recruiting apprentices, grogs, and companions who possess such abilities as they further explore the regio levels. Not everyone will be able to perceive every boundary though, which could lead to interesting stories if, for example, the magus allows the grog who can see the way home to perish on the journey.

Thanks for breaking this all down for me. I should probably make up a little table for all the boundaries and appropriate senses/sources, to ease headaches at the table.

The last boundary will be an interesting in-game variable though. It's a passage from a level 7 magic regio, which can be exited by anyone who knows the proper conditions, into ANYWHERE in Mythic Europe. Exiting, say, into the Vatican, might make it difficult to operate a supernatural ability to return through the boundary!

Its not exactly what I was looking for, but reading BCoC, I just noticed that Calebias has a lvl 5 magic aura, which exists inside a level 5 fairie regio.

I thought it was a faerie AURA, not a faerie regio. The forest is faerie, but from the trees of calebais downwards is magic?

Xavi

Oops, my mistake. I was looking at p17: (SPOILERS)
"Most of the forest on the outskirts of the village has a faerie aura of 2. A significant portion of the area has a fairie regio...it covers three territories, each occupying a different section of the forest: Satyr hollow (fairie 3), the veil (fairie 4), and Dryad Grove (fairie 5)."

Since one must pass through the veil to reach calebais, I was mistakingly assuming that Calebais was inside the veil (and thus regio). I did wonder how Gilbert "has witnessed black clouds of smoke" coming up from the hill (p23) as I didn't think such things would come up out of a regio.

But you're right, page 28 says:
"At the center of the Veil that protects Calebais is the area that contains the Dryad's home and her grove of trees. This area corresponds to the top of Two Crag Hill, and overlaps the mundane layer - the covenant - with a regio and a Faerie 5 aura."

So now I'm conceptualizing the veil as being like a donut, with the covenant being in the mundane "hole" in the middle.

Now I've got a new problem - not with my regio plans for my covenant, but with my eventual plans to run BCoC: plot hole detected! If the covenant is in a mundane area, and stuff can come up out of that mundane area (smoke and fire) and be seen in other mundane areas outside the veil, then why bother dealing with Gilbert, the dryad, riddle, satyrs, etc? Just fly over the dang thing and get straight to the covenant.

This relates to a story amongst some of my players about the classic DnD adventure "Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" in the "against the giants" series. The opening text states that there are chimneys on the roof, which players used to bypass 90% of the adventure.

You know, I played calebais 3 times through the editions (3rd, 4th, 5th). Never used regios in it except for SH. First time I noticed they are there at all :laughing: We even had a (failed) covenant there and we were using a plain aura!

Xavi