They have no gods. They work magic, and think they are gods themselves. - Secrets of the Schools (GLOG Sorcerer extrapost)

Writing sorcerer stuff is just too fun, so here's a grab-bag of half formed ideas.

Alternatives to Iron-Doom

Thanks to Sylvanas_iii for making me think about this topic.

Iron-Doom is pretty weird as a mechanic and ties the class heavily to the implied late bronze/early iron age setting I intended it for. The logic behind it though is pretty transferable; give the otherwise near-omnipotent magic man something mundane that he simply cannot overcome through direct means. Said something should be common, but not ubiquitous. In the intended setting I had in mind, bronze is still the metal of choice in most places but iron is beginning to proliferate.

The idea is to give the DM a mundane way of restraining a character with transmundane capabilities, without having to resort to completely hamstringing them with antimagic fields or other such bullshit. It also serves to provide some niche protection: why does the mage need a thief, when he can command a lock to open and eyes to see him not? Because the treasure is in an iron box. Why does he need a fighting man when he can rain down glorious annihilating incandescences upon his foes? To protect him from iron-wielders.

Keeping this philosophy some transferable ideas are;

Silver, the other anti-supernatural metal, as easy to come by without being absolutely everywhere in most settings as iron is in a bronze age setting. Has the slight twist of making sorcerers incapable of handling the OSR-standard coin, which can be fun or annoying depending on how you handle it.

Rowan Wood, is a possible candidate, in British folklore it's basically a universal anti-magic. So is the Colour Red, which is both easy to use as a DM and an amusing thought. Red-clad inquisitors whacking suspected sorcerers with their rowan staves is pretty fun. Do sorcerers have red blood? Perhaps their blood changing colour would replace the 5 Hubris step as a clear marker of their true nature.

Consecrated Items is another good choice, especially if you want to play up the "treading on the toes of G_d" aspect in a more explicit way. You do have to answer the question of why priests wouldn't just consecrate everything they could, but maybe there's some kind of conservation of holiness in effect, or only certain things can be consecrated, or not just any old oil will do for the anointing and it costs a few hundred silvers of myrrh, cinnamon, casia and galangal to make the good stuff.

Alternatively, I would recommend just using your favourite Doom track and ditching the Hubris count if you want to disentangle the class entirely from having an elemental weakness. I think that would be less fun though.

NEW SCHOOLS

Thanks to Spwack for the idea of including [hubris] as a variable in spell mechanics.

The Ammunat

Yea it is said that the Black Pyramid are the most reviled of all Schools, and it is spoken rightly, but only because so few know the existence of the Ammunat and their plans for the world. If they did, they would hammer day and night on the Black Pyramid's door for deliverance from such evil. An ancient conspiracy and mystery cult, the Ammunat - a Cthondine word meaning "circle", "orb" or "complete" - are followers of the philosophy of Horkalas the Red, one of the greatest - and the most hated - of the Cthondine Autarchs, the central precept of which was the embrace of Hubris (what Horkalas called "Evanescence") as a path to divinity, not something to be feared and shunned like a leprosy. To be apart from the world, so it followed, was to enter a state not unlike that of the divine, where only will and knowledge defined the borders of one's personal reality. The core of the Ammunat are a tiny cabal of sorcerers whose Hubris has long exceeded the point where creation itself rejects them, yet who have amassed control over enough Names that they are able to maintain a fingerhold on the world regardless. These horrifically potent liches are each on a perilous personal quest for divinity and several of them are terrifyingly close, only the fact that their Hubris is so high that a single iron arrow could wink them out of existence keeps them from acting in the open. Needless to say, much of the School's activities involves tracing any possible lead that might bring them to apprehending the truename of iron.

Robes: Maroon, gold trim. Worn only at secret meetings.

Skill: Disguise

Bonus Equipment: A set of common travel clothes with d3+1 hidden pockets, an iron-headed dart sheathed in cork, a secret handshake.

Perk: You know the secret of Sinworking. The Ammunat can fabricate you a false identity in any major city in d3 weeks, providing you make the arrangements ahead of your arrival.

Drawback: You add your number of sorcerer templates to any damage you take from iron, even if your current Hubris is 0.

Names: 1. Air 2. Water 3. Fire 4. Earth 5. Light 6. Image 7. Flesh 8. Wine 9. Tree 10. Silk 11. Darkness 12. Silver

New Secret: Sinworking

There is power in audacity, for those with the will to damn the consequences and grasp it. Whenever you roll a double or triple on your SD, you may either replace [sum] in your Evocation with [hubris] or add the hubris gained as a bonus to the [dice].

Sorcerous Items

Just like wizards - which technically don't exist in my default setting - sorcerers can benefit from a number of magical artifacts to enhance their art. Such items are coveted treasures often wrested from the tombs of sorcerer-kings of old;

Rings store the resonance of a sorcerer's enlightened voice. Any sorcerer can transfer a SD from their pool to a ring, and regenerate it later through rest as normal. The ring stores the SD until it is added to an Evocation. SD from rings have a chance of being returned to their receptacle on a 1-3 just like normal SD but they do not regenerate on their own once expended.

Lyres modulate the sorcerer's song, tempering it with the mathematical precision of the note. This permits the sorcerer who casts an Evocation in conjunction with a lyre to change the [sum] of one of their rolled SD up or down one point.

Koans are riddles, poems and thought experiments on the subject of a particular Name, that help the reader to shake their thought patterns free of the muddied meanings of the mundane world and achieve the clarity of thought and intent that is prized by sorcerers. By providing a meditative focus that deepens and clarifies the sorcerer's connection with its subject, koans provide the sorcerer with +1SD to an Evocation that involves its Name. Once read, the koan sublimes in a flash of coloured light.

Ironman (Human Race-As-Class)

Companion piece to the sorcerer for a slowly gestating setting.

Thissen brande sowithe yitt we shalle reyn yron dartes thereon the heddes of otheren kinde

 Behold the Ironman, wielder of the Last Form and the First Truth, breaker of thrones and trampler of banners. Nameless daemon of the uttermost north, who chokes the songs of sorcerers with blood. He who has dipped his iron in many hearts, to whom the stench of bloodied fields is sweetest perfume.

You can wear any armour and wield shields, and are proficient with all weapons that have metal striking surfaces.

You gain +1 to Hit or Defence per Template and +1 to Critical Hit Range at 2nd and 4th Templates.

Skill: Blacksmithing and one other; 1. Pillaging 2. Riding 3. Tactics

Starting Equipment: Steely iron laminar armour, shield & helmet, 2 steely iron weapons of your choice, a small but tough riding pony and tack, 4d6 gp worth of trade iron and easily traded plunder (cheap jewelry, spices, salt, ivory, furs and silks) & a red-dyed coif.

A: Trothed-To-Iron, The First Truth
B: Ironward, +1 Attack per Turn
C: Breaker-of-elves-and-beasts 
D: The Riddle of Steel, +1 Attack per Turn

A: Trothed-To-Iron
Iron is your god, all gods are jealous and miserly with their love. You suffer a penalty equal to your number of Templates on attack rolls with weapons that do not have iron striking surfaces, and reduce the benefit to Defence from any non-iron armour by the same amount.

A: The First Truth
'That which does not exist is less valuable than that which does, to end the existence of others thus proves your existence is more worthy than theirs.'

Make a tally mark on your character sheet for every kill you make of a foe that was either putting up a meaningful fight - defined here as one that has the capacity to deal you more than 1HP of damage - or had offered you insult. You have a separate track of HP, equal to 1 times the number of full tallies (5 marks) you have. These do not count for purposes of determining your maximum possible HP (usually 20), and only heal through rest - i.e. if you drink a healing potion or receive sorcerous healing (you unutterable milkblooded cur) it only applies to your base HP.

B: Ironward
When wielding an iron shield, you may choose to allow it to become mangled to negate the damage of one hit completely or automatically pass a save against a damaging effect. A mangled shield is useless until it is hammered back into shape, requiring an hour's work by a blacksmith with access to a forge and metalworking tools. At Template D you can also mangle a shield to automatically save against non-damaging magical effects.

C: Breaker-of-elves-and-beasts
Subdue a foe in honourable battle, employing no poison or sorcery, bind them in fetters of iron you have crafted with your own hands and extract an oath of fealty from them. As long as they remain fettered in your iron and their HD do not exceed your Templates they must Save to disobey your commands. Elves and other beings vulnerable to iron don't get a save. This works on beasts too, but you don't need to get them to give fealty if they can't speak.

This might seem like sorcery, your eyes are deceiving you due to your weak constitution and lack of moral character.

D: The Riddle of Steel
You know the true name of iron. As a result, you can replace any part of your body with iron armour that would cover the lost region; an iron gauntlet moves its fingers as you will, even if you have no hand to fill it. This even applies to lost or damaged organs; a blind ironman sees as clear as ever when his visor is down, an ironman whose lungs were ruined by pneumonia breathes freely when his breastplate is on, even a brain-damaged ironman suddenly finds his thoughts sharp and memory long when an iron war-cap is placed atop his head. Ignore penalties resulting from injuries in locations that you wear iron armour on. If clad wholly in iron you cannot die of natural causes, even if your mortal body dies and withers to dust your armour keeps on walking and talking, albeit devoid of human passion for anything but war, spending the rest of its time silently waiting for the next opportunity for bloodshed. Some ironmen have been known to practice self-mummification within their armour, drinking a slow poison of oak galls, rowan berries and hemlock that preserves their flesh.

Okay, this is technically sorcery, shhhhh, don't tell anyone.

Man is an invention of recent date - Archaeologist (GLOG Class)

Quick and dirty, in truest gretchling style, written entirely on my phone in a lunch break;

You're not much of a fighter, you can't wear armour unless another class allows you but can wield shields. A combination of boarding school life, the university boxing championships and a smattering of bartitsu means you cannot fumble with fisticuffs, light clubs and pistols.

Skill: Ancient History and 1 other

Equipment: Leatherbound notebook and pencil, sheaf of paper, piece of rubbing wax, stick of chalk, thumbstick (light weapon, in a pinch).

For each Template you gain +1 to Saves

A: Cunning Linguist, Sally Forth.

B: What a Relief

C: Bibliophile 

D: Power Word

A: Cunning Linguist 

You are fluent in all dead and antique languages, as long as even a scrap of their written or spoken form survives to the present day, and can have Templates+1 out of 6 chance to be able to hazard a rough guess at the meaning of even ones that don't, as well as formulate simple phrases in them on the fly.

In addition, you can read and cast Incantations if you find any (see below).

A: Sally Forth

A combination of stiff upper lip, head-in-the-clouds academic obliviousness and love of the Empire inures you against fear and danger. You have advantage on saves versus traps and fear, on a successful save you take no damage or negative effects, even if you would normally suffer half.

B: What a Relief

You have a 2:6 chance to find a random Incantation in any inscription, statue, mosaic or relief you spend at least 10 minutes examining, creating a rubbing, sketch or similar containing it in the process. Roll a d4 to determine its MD.

C: Bibliophile

You love books, books love you. You are never subject to curses as a result of reading forbidden texts, and cannot be harmed or inconvenienced by exploding runes, symbols-of-unpleasantness, and other such written cognitohazards. Others nearby you may take the brunt instead though.

D: Power Word 

You can choose to cast an Incantation with more MD than it has, at a cost of 1d6 HP per MD added.

Incantations

The ancients were absolutely mad for spells, invocation, sacred architecture and all that rot. 'Course nowadays we have safe, reliable, state-approved magicians rather than mad, doomed, godlike wizards. But a lot of that old magic is still about, hidden beneath the sands - or ice, vines, funko pop figurines,  what-have-you - carved into steles, tablets and temple walls.

Incantations can be memorised by anyone who can fluently read the language they are written in. They take up as much space in your memory slots (which you have a number of equal to your Intelligence score) as they have MD, and take 10 minutes per MD to memorize.

Incantations have their own MD, which are always expended on use, you cannot choose to use fewer MD to cast them, though you might carry several copies that each have different MD values. These are referred to in the following form;

1MD: The Lesser Spell of...

2MD: The Journeyman's Spell of...

3MD: The Greater Spell of...

4MD: The Master Spell of...

In all other respects, Incantations are GLOG spells from any source. Doubles and Triples incur mishaps and Dooms as normal, drawn from the class that the spell came from. You may have multiple Dooms.

Sorcery Thrives on Success - Sorcerer (GLOG Class)

The core of this class is Skerples' Paladin of the Word, with some major caveats. It's less omnipotent - the pally is like a Sorcerer who knows every Name and no Hubris or backlash, as is fitting for one who speaks with the voice of the Authority rather than mimicking their tone and timbre to trick the world - but has some additional tricks up its voluminous silken sleeves. Besides, I think the collectability of Names is a feature rather than a bug, what mage doesn't enjoy collecting new magic? They're also a bit of a glass cannon, having a very powerful and flexible tool but also a severe weakness that a DM can easily use to stop them from just spellcasting their way past a challenge. An iron gate is as big an impediment to a sorcerer as it is to a fighter or thief, maybe moreso as they can't lift or climb over it without taking damage. A foe in full plate is a serious threat for a sorcerer, even a peasant wearing a horseshoe amulet is a problem, though if they're clever - as a magician should be - still not an insurmountable one. Turn the ground beneath his feet into quicksand, blow poison powder in his eyes, bewitch peasants to mob him, lure him into a building and collapse the ceiling, fight like a sorcerer - unfairly.

Credit also goes to the Second Apocalypse series for a lot of the flavour, even though the magic system is almost completely different.

GLOG Class: Sorcerer

Sorcery can be thought of as the antonym of philosophy; one shapes language to conform with reality, the other forces reality to conform to language. By their arts sorcerers speak to the world that is otherwise deaf to the concerns of men, and convince it to change. Sorcery is thus a supreme hubris, to engage in its use even lightly is to make the implicit statement that you know how the world should be ordered better than its creator.

You gain +2 Names per template, the second and fourth Templates also give you +1 to Saves, you cannot wear any armour unless another class allows you but you can wield shields. You cannot fumble with daggers, darts, powders, phials or poison.

Skill: One determined by your School and one other: 1. Alchemy 2. Astronomy 3. Poetry

Starting Equipment: Hooded silk robes of your School's colours, bronze dagger, soft slippers (+1 to sneaking), paper twist of blinding powder (save or be blinded for 1d6 rounds), an assumed name, one item from the table at the bottom.

A: Evocation, Iron-Doom, School, +1SD, 

B: Secret, +1SD

C: Secret, Mutter-Song +1SD

D: Secret, Truename +1SD

A: Evocation: Sorcerers are not limited by static spells, they are poets and meister singers who shout down the omnipresent voice of G_d and replace it with their own. They do this with Song Dice which are a bit like Magic Dice, but called something different and cannot be used interchangeably. As usual they are d6's and return to your pool on a 1-3, and are regenerated when you get a good rest. Evocation requires the sorcerer to sing loudly, so is impossible to perform stealthily.

If you roll doubles on any SD, you gain a point of Hubris. If you roll triples, you gain five.

The main limit on what a sorcerer can achieve is their knowledge of Names. You start knowing the name Man, which allows you to Evoke all humanoid sapient beings, and one other rolled from your School's list. When you gain a new template of Sorcerer you gain 2 Names, one of which must be rolled from your School's list, the other you may choose freely from your studies. You can learn new Names if you find them on your journeys, either learned from other Sorcerers (usually at great cost) or hidden in the warp and weft of the world.

With one template of Sorcerer you know the techniques Command and Sense.

At two templates you learn the technique Destroy and Empower.

At four templates you learn the technique Manifest.

A: Iron-Doom: Iron is the Last Form, that all matter descends into, and so lacks Tonós, the mystical tension - the desire for change - that sorcery acts upon. Note that steel is just iron with a different carbon concentration, it still counts. Your magic is thus bound by the following rules;

1. Sorcery cannot affect iron directly in any way. You cannot transform it, destroy it, move it, if there's any ambiguity the answer is no. The only sorcerous technique that works on iron is Sense.
2. An iron weapon cuts through anything created by sorcery like it was mist and shadows, even the most powerful manifestations take maximum damage from iron weapons, and sorcerous bonuses to Defence are useless against iron weapons.
3. Every inventory space of predominantly iron objects a person carries forces you to roll 1 Iron Die when trying to perform an Evocation that targets them, Iron Dice only count for determining doubles and triples.
4. Iron deals you 1 point of damage per point of Hubris (highly hubristic sorcerers have been known to instantly sublime into pillars of salt on contact with iron), per round of contact or per attack.
5. Iron armour subtracts the wearer's Defence score from any sorcerous damage, even if it doesn't normally allow a save. Indirect damage resulting from sorcery, such as a natural fire ignited with sorcery or falling rocks loosened by sorcery, deal their full damage but usually allow a save.

A: School: Choose a School where you learned sorcery from, this determines which Names you choose from, as well as starting equipment and what Perks and Drawbacks you get.

B, C, D: Secret: At each of these templates, you may choose from one of the following secret arts;

• Daimos: You may sing down daemons from the outer dark. You may summon any extraplanar entity whose name you know and whose HD does not exceed your SD*2 to perform [dice] tasks for you. When its final task is complete roll its HD and your SD and compare [sum] - if you get the higher it departs without any further fanfare, if it gets the higher it may remain in the world for a number of rounds equal to the difference. When you choose this Secret you gain knowledge of a daemon's name of HD equal or below your current number of templates in this class, additional names must be acquired through hunting down secret tomes, interrogating cultists and the like.
• Calling: You may roll your SD send messages to anyone whose true name you know across any distance, the message may be up to [sum]+[dice] words long. It may also contain images taken from your memory or imagination at a cost of 3 words each. If the target is asleep when the message is sent they receive it in their dreams.
• Chorus: You can harmonise your voice with others, allowing you to add half your number of templates rounded up in SD to another sorcerer's Evocations. Multiple sorcerers with this secret may all contribute, any Hubris incurred from the Evocation is divided between all in the chorus.,
• Skin Wards: You may roll SD and gain a personal magical shield of [sum] HP in strength, any effect that would damage you subtracts its damage from these HP first. It manifests when you are attacked as your Names leaping to defend you - wind blows away arrows, spars of stone block blows, your skin turns to bronze, etc. Iron deals maximum damage against Skin Wards.
• Witchfingers: You are proficient in a system of pressure point based martial arts that let you rend flesh and disrupt vital processes with seemingly impossibly light touches. It looks really weird, like you just poke someone in the neck and their carotid artery explodes, what the hell. Your fingers and toes count as light weapons that can deal piercing, slashing or poison damage, and if you hit someone with a critical hit or catch them unawares you can paralyze them for as long as you remain touching them with at least two digits. You can also do neat but useless martial arts tricks like balancing upside-down on one finger or breaking bricks with your nuts.
• Vox Dei: You can speak in a sorcerous language that every conscious being understands, even animals. This does not allow you to understand them if you don't know their language.
• Namesight: You can choose whether or not to see things whose Name you know. If you know the name of Stone you can choose for stone walls to not obscure your sight (though you might bump into walls if you're not careful) or clearly survey the sea and its life by choosing not to see Water.
• Commune: You can perform a ritual divination, rolling as many SD as you choose. You may ask [highest] questions, and receive answers of ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Unclear. If asking questions about something that you know the Name of, you may instead receive the answers: ‘Certainly’, ‘Possibly’, ‘Unclear’, ‘Consider Further’, ‘Unlikely’, or ‘Impossible’.
• Reconstruction: Requires Empower. You can restore creatures and objects to their intact state by repairing their Name. Roll as many SD as you wish, you restore [sum] HP of damage to the target. If you roll at least 2SD you can restore the target the use of a damaged sensory organ or mangled limb, and undo the effects of corrosion and decay on natural items (you can't reverse rusting for obvious reasons). If you spend at least 4SD, you can restore missing limbs and organs, even those that are missing as a result of a birth defect, and turn even an object burned to ashes back to its former state.
• Fidelity: Requires Manifest. At your choosing your manifestations no longer appear unreal and ghostly but are as solid-seeming and indistinguishable from the real thing as if they were created by G_d himself.

C: Mutter-Song: You voice is now so powerful you may perform your Evocations with a low, rumbling, throat-song that attracts less attention than normal. Your Evocations don't require you to make more noise than quiet conversation.

D: Truename: Pick one of your known Names, you gain a deeper understanding of it than other Sorcerers, so much so it sinks into your soul and becomes part of it. Create a unique passive special ability between you and your DM that is embodied in the chosen Name, you gain this ability permanently. Some examples are;

• Man: Immunity to involuntary transformation. Heal back to your perfect form unless killed.
• Animal: Assume the Named animal's form at will. Gain Named animal's physical capability relative to human size.
• Fire: See heat as well as light. Read piles of ash as easily as the text it once was.
• Iron: In every generation there's someone who tries to apprehend the truename of iron, the last guy had everything above the mandible instantly turn to salt, but maybe you'll get lucky.

Techniques

Command
R: [dice]*50' T: 1 [name] creature or object D: [dice] hours
You shout a single-word command to your target. If the target is sentient or under a force that is acting against your command (e.g. if you command a boulder rolling down a hill to STOP) it gets a Save to resist. If the command lasts more than a single round, the target gets a new save at the beginning of each of its rounds. You can spend additional [dice] to increase the effects.
+1 SD: Affect +2 targets.
+1 SD: You may increase then length of your command by +2 words.
+1 SD: You may increase the duration between checks by +2 rounds.

Sense

R: [dice]*50' T: [name] D: [dice] hours

You become aware of the presence of the [name] within the range of the Evocation. You can sense the distance and direction of all examples of [name], and if you know the true name of a specific individual or item you can also tell them apart from others that share a [name].

Destroy
R: [dice]*50' T: 1 [name] creature or object D: 0
Target take [sum]+[dice] damage. Save for half damage. This represents any command that deals direct damage (explode, die, split, tear yourself to shreds, etc.)

Instead of adding a SD to the [sum] of this spell, you can instead assign an SD to increase the number of targets by +2.

If you have 4 Sorcerer templates you can use this technique on targets who you do not know the Name of - rather than commanding them to be destroyed, you instead manifest your Names to attack them, in which case the damage type changes depending on the Name employed. E.g. using an "Eagle" missile to summon a ghostly eagle to rend your target with its talons would deal slashing damage.

Depending on the number of SD employed, you can choose one of the following forms (Somewhat stolen from here);

1SD: Missile, deals [sum]+[dice] damage to one target, no save.

2SD: Ball, deals [sum] damage to everyone within a [dice]*10' radius of the landing point, or half damage on a save.

3SD: Either;

1. Blast,  deals [sum]+[dice] damage to everyone within a 50' cone, save for half. or;
2. Barrage, deals 1d10 damage to [dice] targets, no save.

4SD: Either;

1. Lance, deals [sum]+[dice]*2 damage to one target, save for half. or;
2. Cloud, deals [dice]*d6 damage each turn in a [dice]*10' radius for as long as you maintain singing your Evocation. While preoccupied with your song you suffer disadvantage on all other actions and cannot perform any other Evocations, you may however move the cloud at a rate of your own walking pace as long as the endpoint of its movement is in range.

Empower

R: Touch T: 1 [name] creature or object D: [sum] minutes

You can reinforce an aspect of the target, rewriting their Name to make it stronger than it was before. Choose one of the target's numerical statistics, it gains a +[dice] bonus for the duration.

Manifest

R: [dice]*50' T: 1 [name] creature or object D: [sum] rounds or until dismissed

You can Evoke a Name strong enough to create an echo of it in reality, imperfectly mimicking G_d's own act of creation. A ghostly version of the [name] appears in the place targeted, it appears semi-transparent and obviously unreal but in every way behaves exactly like what it is - fire burns, water drowns, stone bears weight, etc. You may manifest up to a person-sized object or creature of up to 2HD, inanimate matter appears in whatever shape you desire when you Evoke it - ghostly walls and statues are fair game - creatures are obedient to your wishes. More powerful creatures may require more SD to manifest at all. Additional SD may be spent to increase the scale of the manifestation;

+1 SD - Increase the max HD of the manifested creature by 1.

+1 SD - Create a wagon-sized amount of matter.

+2 SD - Create a house-sized amount of matter.

+3 SD - Create a castle-sized amount of matter.

Bonuses

If you know the true name (the one given by their parent or creator) of the person or object you target with your Evocations, they suffer disadvantage on their save. Not everything has a true name, but works of art, unique artifacts and THREE WORD NAME swords do.

HUBRIS

At 5 or more Hubris, your voice takes on a scratchy, unpleasant roughness, and echoes slightly when you speak above a whisper. Disguising your status as a sorcerer becomes difficult at this point.

At 10 or more Hubris, whenever you perform Evocations sigilic haloes - intricate rings of arcane notation - appear around your head and hands. Those with the power to see souls have their reactions to you immediately drop a step.

At 15 or more Hubris, when you try to manipulate something that you don't know the Name of, you have a 2:6 chance to fail. Either your hand passes right through it or it is as immovable to your touch as if it was pinched between the fingers of G_d.

At 20 Hubris, G_d's own creation itself ignores you save for the commands you give it. If you do not know the Name of something, it is as if it doesn't exist for you. If you do not know the Name of Air, you begin to suffocate, if you do not know the Name of Fire, you freeze, if you do not know the Name of the Sun, you cannot see by day, nor can you see by night unless you know the Name of the Moon, if you do not know the name of Earth then you fall through it like it was an illusion. Chances are you don't know enough Names to survive for long.

You can lose Hubris (generally no more than 1-3 points at a time) by spending time (at least a week) abstaining from all sorcery, receiving absolution from powerful divine beings, or telling someone your true name.

SCHOOLS

The Khagan Munsu

The Munsu are one of the only Schools that enjoy governmental recognition, rather than being a loose collection of power-hungry occult scholars banding together for mutual protection. They are the descendants of the Wind Screamers, hereditary shamans of the Tong steppe, who once practiced sorcery on a master-apprentice system until the great uniter Achujam Bachural Khan ordered the Mandate of Stars & Flames, an official call for all sorcerers within his domain to present themselves before his court, with rich rewards promised for those who attended. Those who answered the Mandate were formed into the Munsu (Tongen for "Ministry"), the sorcerous left hand of the Khaganate throne, who would accompany their armies, run the Yam - the khaganates' postal service - and perform their tutelage in a structured form designed to serve the needs of the Khaganate and its relentless expansion. Their first duty was exterminating all who refused the call.

Robes: Sky blue, fur-lined.

Skill: Riding

Bonus Equipment: Riding horse and tack, a bronze paiza giving you freedom of travel throughout the khaganate and obliging citizens to give you lodging and provisions.

Perk: You start with knowledge of the Secret of Calling. Also, it's technically illegal for peasants to be cheeky to you.

Drawback: When you sleep you have a 1:3 chance to receive a vision from the capital giving you orders. Failure to complete assignments may result in being called to the capital to give an accounting.

Names: 1. Fire 2. Wind 3. Tower 4. Sun 5. Cloth 6. Gold 7. Horse 8. Cloud 9. Eagle 10. Eye 11. Earth 12. Sword

The Ešhugal

The Ešhugal are a clan of mercenary sorcerers, formed from the dregs of the ruling caste of the Sassál Imperium and their neighbouring long-time enemies from the Autarchs of Cthond. Both empires had long since passed their golden age by the time the ironmen came to bring an end to the reign of the sorcerer-kings across the continent, and had lapsed into a period of extreme decadence characterised by wanton licentiousness, extremes of vulgar excess and disregard for the laws of man and G_d. Unwilling to perform the hard work of their ancestors in rebuilding their shattered fortunes or to give up the life to which they had become accustomed, they formed the Ešhugal - from a Sassálid term meaning "congress of princes" - charging exorbitant fees to anyone willing to pay them for their forebearer's hard-won lore.

Robes: Magenta and gold

Skill: Apothecary

Bonus Equipment: Box of drug-taking paraphernalia and 3 doses of black lotus.

Perk: You start with knowledge of the Secret of Daimos. In any large settlement you can find underworld connections like fences, drug dealers and assassins with ease.

Drawback: You are cripplingly addicted to black lotus, if you don't get a dose at least every other day you are at disadvantage on all actions.

Names: 1. Poison 2. Wheel 3. Daemon 4. Sand 5. Smoke 6. Silk 7. Water 8. Plant 9. Crystal 10. Serpent 11. Hair 12. Fire.

The Viparti

Alone among sorcerers, the Viparti are seen as holy rather than damned by the majority of people - even if theologians dispute the matter with some vigor. They are descended from the mage clans of the Kikala Plateau, who had long warred with eachother over the land, causing much chaos and strife among the people who inhabited it. They saw the coming of the ironmen as a punishment for their crimes and their remnants formed a covenant to study sorcery for the sake of enlightenment rather than personal power. The site of the convenant was a burned-out village of no name on the banks of the Vipar river. Today there now stands a monastery in this very place, which takes in any child whose parents cannot afford to keep it on the proviso that they never speak the child's true name again.

Robes: Yellow, red trim

Skill: Acrobatics

Bonus Equipment: Bronze singing bowl w/ wooden striker, sutra scroll.

Perk: You start with knowledge of the Secret of Witchfingers. You can remain dimly conscious of your surroundings while "sleeping" in a meditation pose.

Drawback: You have taken a vow of poverty. You cannot own more than you can carry on your person or you take 1 Hubris per day until you get rid of the excess. Books, scrolls and items containing Names don't count if you choose to store them in a Viparti monastery for the use and edification of your brothers.

Names: 1. Lighting 2. Rain 3. Mountain 4. Wood 5. Water 6. Dagger 7. Rope 8. House 9. Falcon 10. Wind 11. Sickness 12. Dragon

The Black Pyramid

The most ancient, storied and reviled of all Schools is the Black Pyramid, both sorcerers and autocratic oligarchs of the Magocracy of Hanok. They were once reckoned as among the weakest of the sorcerous empires, their independence maintained through webs of fealty, trade and bribery more than their sorcery. But when the ironmen came down from the uttermost north, it was Hanok alone that was prepared to wage the conventional war that their iron battle gear demanded.  With its swolen armies of slave-soldiers purchased to reinforce their otherwise paltry numbers of sorcerers-of-the-line, Hanok and the Black Pyramid emerged the only remaining magocracy on the continent and the only fully intact School. It is a position they have clung onto with ever increasing paranoia since. The slave army of Hanok have since gone from being spell-fodder expected only to soak up damage to a highly trained and equipped elite fighting force, the Dalesin, and what of Hanok's wealth that doesn't go to furnishing them with glittering immaculum wargear is spent mining and importing iron - to be loaded onto bulk freighters and dumped into the deepest recesses of the sea.

Robes: Black with geometric silver embroidery

Skill: Politics 

Bonus Equipment: d3+1 body slaves (stats as level 0 commoners)

Perk: Start with the Chorus secret. You are basically above the law within the boundaries of Hanok.

Drawback: You gain +1 to all Hubris gains, most sorcerers have a bit of a G_d complex but the Black Pyramid's arrogance puts them all to shame.

Names: 1. Wolf 2. Stone 3. Bone 4. Spear 5. Glass 6. Crow 7. Darkness 8. Silver 9. Orb 10. Hand 11.  Mist 12. Iron

1d20 Places to find a Name

Names can turn up anywhere, the Schools watch for them falling from the sky as meteors and conduct expeditions to places no man has ever been in hope of finding rich sources of them. There are even ways of "farming" them, after a fashion, rituals that can prompt them to reveal themselves in a semi-reliable fashion. Here are some places you might find a new Name;

1. Inside a geode, humming in resonance with sorcery, crack it and hold the hollow to your ear.
2. Woven into the strands of a spider's web, visible only in the new morning's dew.
3. Carved into a cliff face by repeated lightning strikes.
4. In the freckles on the back of a harvest fayer's prize pig.
5. Scored on the inside of the skull of the last sorcerer to know it, at the bottom of a mineshaft.
6. Hidden in the background of a mad painter's last work.
7. In a group of unusually lucky street children's nonsense-rhyme.
8. Written on a parchment in the mouth of a desiccated corpse that walked out of the desert.
9. In a set of chalk geoglyphs that can only be observed from above.
10. In the cracks left in the side of a temple by an earthquake.
11. In the blood splatter left on a wall by an infamous serial killer.
12. In the heartwood of a tree split open by a wildfire.
13. Read from the entrails of a two headed calf.
14. In a birthmark on the inner thigh of the most expensive prostitute in the land.
15. In a flaw at the heart of a gemstone.
16. In the pattern of barnacles on the hull of the most feared pirate ship on the sea.
17. Entwined in the mycelium beds of a fairy ring.
18. Trapped, echoing around the bottom of a lightless chasm.
19. Whispered once a century by a comatose giant.
20. Inscribed upon the eye of a sun-blind stylite.

Sorcerous Appurtenances

1. Pair of thick leather gloves. Let's you handle iron without your skin turning to salt.

2. A black silk pavilion tent, preternaturally cool and quiet inside, takes more than one person to set up.

3. A palanquin or lecticia, complete with 4 burly slave bearers of initially grudging loyalty.

4. A sealed glass sphere of daemon fire, deals 4d6 damage in a 10' radius when broken against a hard surface.

5. An ear horn, let's you hear conversations on the other side of doors and pinpoint the origin of faint noises.

6. Filigreed bronze bracers, counts as a small shield.

7. A heavy brocade cloak, warm and stylish, heavy enough to make someone stumble if you swung it at them.

8. Set of vicious looking torturers' tools, (+1 to Interrogation).

9. Dose of black lotus, the gold-standard for sorcerous narcotics, lets you reroll 1SD per Evocation for 1d6*10 minutes, disadvantage on all non-sorcerous tasks while under its effects from vivid audiovisual hallucinations.

10. A disk of obsidian polished to a mirror-shine. You can view cognitohazards like medusas and angels in it without danger.

11. A jar of rust monster saliva. If struck with it, save or have 1d3 randomly determined iron items crumble to dust.

12. Bundle of scrolls containing 3 of the following subjects; 1. Ancient Classics 2. Erudite Theology 3. Political Theory 4. Advanced Mathematics 5. Astronomy & Astrology 6. Erotic Poetry.

13. Box of rosewater and pistachio candies.

14. A x5 telescope in a leather case.

15. Devotional amulet to a prominent local cult.

16. Ostentatious cameo ring containing a small hidden chamber.

17. Pouch of incense that allows the breather to perceive invisible entities while rendering them incapable of comprehensible speech for d6 x 10 minutes.

18. A dog-eared copy of the heretical philosophical work "A Modest Defence of the Arcane".

19. Pomander with a highly distinctive perfume, used to form mnemonic connections. Allows a second save against sensory or memory-altering effects when smelled. Needs to be periodically refreshed with expensive ingredients.

20. A bizarre curiosity;

1. A collar that prevents the wearer from performing magical feats.
2. A stone that glows in the presence of the Holy, and also on really hot days.
3. Scarf treated with poison-neutralising alchemy.
4. The tongue of a dead Sorcerer, scored with Names, allows an Evocation to be cast with +1SD 3 times, but attracts the presence of all undead within a 10 mile radius for 24 hrs when used.
5. Sealed beaker of liquid crystals, can foretell the weather with 50% accuracy, denatures after 2D6 months unless refreshed.
6. SUNK COST FALLACY, a medium (+1) khopesh of immaculum, hilt bound in gazelle hide. Has a 2:6 chance to know a factoid about any ruins its blade is tapped against.