The White Witch's Grimoire

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I thought it'd be fun to stat out some spells that Jadis, The White Witch, from the Chronicles of Narnia probably would have in her grimoire. Without further ado:

Charm of Perpetual Winter, or "Always winter, and Never Christmas"
Target: Boundary, Duration: Year, Range: Touch; Ritual

This spell causes a region to be cast in perpetual winter for a year. The area within the bounds of this spell is constantly chilled, and even fires and other sources of warmth within the boundary are dimmed. Additionally, the region is subjected to regular snowfall so that is covered in a perpetual blanket of snow.

Base 4, +4 boundary, +4 year, +1 touch, +1 Creo, +1 Auram = Pe(Cr)Ig(Au) 55

Invoke the Endless Snowfall
Target: Boundary, Duration: Year, Range: Sight; Ritual

The maga conjures a bank of clouds over a region so that for an entire year, it blankets the region in snow. This snow will only persist if the region below is also cold.

base 2, +4 boundary, +4 year, +3 sight = CrAu 45

Curse of Medusa, or "Fate of Mr. Tumnus"
Target: Individual, Duration: Sun, Range: Touch

The maga touches her wand to a living person or animal and it instantly is turned into stone. Breaking the stone statue will cause grievous wounds and potentially death once the effect ends.

base 25, +2 sun, +1 touch = MuCo(Te) 40

The Deplorable Word
Target: Boundary, Duration: Momentary, Range: Touch; Ritual

The maga speaks a word, so terrible that every living thing within a boundary is instantly killed. The spell causes all life within its range to instantly wither, die, and become dust.

base 30, +4 boundary, +1 touch, +1 Herbam, +1 Animal = PeCo(He)(An) 65

2

I like it. Keep in mind though that a base Boundary in AM5 is only an area 100 paces in diameter so the snowfall would be restricted to say, a football stadium or a shopping mall.

3

so, maybe some increases in size to bump up the area of effect... i many how many boundaries would make up a country...

4

Every magnitude multiplies the area covered by a boundary by 10.
So, just a back of the napkin estimate would put it at about 8 or 9 magnitudes for a large area.

5

Sounds about right, J.L.

The WW is not a "Hermetic" spellcaster - if anything, more fae. So non-Hermetic R/D/T, such as an old-fashioned 4th ed "boundary" (not limited in size) might be more approp, along with some other more creative non-Hermetic elements.

6

Yeah, I was thinking of a character concept inspired by Jadis, and wondered what a magus with similar powers would be like...

7

Right - so go there for ways to get closer to the original. I'm sure others are better read on HoH:MC/Fae, Ancient Magic and so on, but some of those, or other non-standard directions.

8

About "Charm of perpetual Winter":

Good name, since she sees this as a charm, not a curse.

Would it be within the mediaval paradigm that the low temperature by itself will cause snow? In modern terms is it is cold enough any precipitation will fall as snow, right? So if it it sufficiently wet, it will snow instead.
I'm just trying to get rid of the Cr and Au req's.

Suposing the PeIg was one thing and a CrAu was anothe effect to cause the snow to fall? The low abient temperature would ensure the snow did not melt while the Charm was in effect, thus this part of the effect needs to Ig req's.

Overall i like it. But I did have as my longest and most intensively played ArM concept was an ice maga (in 4th ed) so I guess I'm not a neutral party.

9

Until works very well on many of this spells.
I'll write soon spells inspired by the anime manga One Piece, je.

10

If the air´s wet enough, you get frost naturally at least and if there´s lets say a sea nearby and regular wind pattern is from the sea, well then the frost will quickly be plenty enough to be as good as snow.
So essentially, you can even get it for real like that.

Ice magi are fun. One of the classics. :smiley:

While i haven´t seen the series, seeing those spells would be fun i think, so i´ll be waiting for them!

I´ve had lots of fun trying to stat out some "spells"/items that people asked for from some other animes(Bleach, Naruto, Mahou Shoujo Nanoha, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Darker than Black), although many requires being more than a little bit munchkin(or outright fluff modding due to some of the hermetic limits) to avoid ending up with uselessly high levels compared to actual effect.