There Is No Skill In What I do - Church Assassin (GLOG Class) (Bandwagoning)

The GLOG is going through a bit of a bandwagon again, this is mine.

The Erĝeshmál are a rumour, albeit a persistant one - a hidden cabal of fanatic-assassins whose origin stretches back to the very beginning of the Latterine Church, when the message of the Latter Prophet was scorned and its followers subjected to all manner of persecution and humiliation. The Erĝeshmál (from the Sassálid "fangs of prophecy") protected the faithful from organised pogroms and official censures through covert assassination, guided by a whisper network of hidden Latterines in the servants' chambers of a thousand palaces and, it is claimed, by inspired visions. This is history though, and the Latterine Church waxes strong across the surface of the World - there is no more reason for borderline heresies the likes of the Erĝeshmál to exist; with half the world's crowns bowing to the Deiarch on her throne in Súnelamar, what use would she have for a few silent knives in the dark?

Class: Church Assassin
You are a member of a hidden cabal of killers whose hands are guided by prophecy. You have never studied the blade, no-one taught you how to scale castle walls or pick locks, how to hide in plain sight or the secret evil ways by which men can be seperated from their souls quickly and efficiently. You need know none of these dreadful, sinful things that uproot the rightful order of creation. You spent your time in prayer, supplication and denial so that when the time came that you were needed angels would guide your hands far more surely than any training.

Starting Skill: None.

Equipment: Beggar's rags (as normal clothing, +1 to Reaction Rolls to be ignored), bronze alms bowl, bronze kitchen knife (light weapon in your hands, d3 in another's (see "Needful Things" below)), rosary (strung on garotte wire, +1d4 to grappling damage), d6 silver pieces and d6x10 copper pieces.

Every Template gives +1 Portent Die

A: Needful Things, Portents
B: The Call, +1d6 Critical Damage
C: On Angel's Wings
D: The Appointed Time, +1d6 Critical Damage

A: Needful Things
You are not proficient in any weapons or armour. However, you can wield any object of appropriate size as a light or medium weapon, even if it isn't intended as one. You can also expend a Portent of Success to automatically find any mundane equipment item somewhere in your immediate surroundings, no matter how unlikely. Items acquired this way will somehow be lost or stolen by the end of the day.

A: Portents
Your movements are clumsy, artless and imprecise, yet somehow your knife finds its way past the thickest armour and the most practiced defences while your foe's most deft blows are somehow turned by sudden stumbles and distractions, as if some unseen puppeteer guided you.

At the start of the day roll a number of Portent Dice (d6s). Each die that rolls a 1-3 grants you a Portent of Failure, while each that rolls 4-6 grants a Portent of Success. Rolls of 1 and 6 explode, granting their Portent of Failure/Success as normal and being rerolled for another.

You may expend a Portent of Failure to cause someone within your line of sight to fail a roll of your choice, as an interrupt. You must have some way of influencing them, even if as little as a whistle or a thrown pebble at the right moment.

You may expend a Portent of Success to automatically succeed at some roll you or another within line of sight are required to make. As above, you must have some way of influencing the target if it is not yourself. When used for attack rolls this counts as a Critical Hit.

B: The Call
When setting out on a mission, dungeon delve, quest or what-have-you you may pray for guidance. Ask the DM "Is there someone here who the gods wish me to kill?", and he will answer with a vision of their face and rough location - enough to narrow it down to within one quadrant of a given dungeon floor. If you kill them you may regain all your expended Portents.

C: On Angel's Wings
When someone attacks you and misses, either naturally or because of a Portent of Failure, they suffer d6 coincidental damage as they sprain their ankles, stumble into your weapon, crack their head on nearby objects or some other such improbable bungle. If their failure was a result of a natural 1, they instead take your Critical Damage.

D: The Appointed Time
This is what you have been preparing for, the reason you were placed upon the World.

First of all, you apprehend the true name Dust, and may teach it to sorcerers if you wish, they will expect to have to do you a great service in return. Aiding and abetting sorcerers is a sinful act, but you may assume special dispensation in service of a greater good.

Secondly, you are immune to sorcerous commands directed at yourself - your actions are not your own, so the word of Man has no control over you.

Finally; once, ever, you may declare a single target within your line of sight your destined kill. If there is any possibility of you even being able to deal them damage, the next time you successfully attack them they die. The archvillain can be right in the middle of his big climactic speech before his assembled minions and you run out of the crowd and clock him in the temple with a rock and he falls down dead. No save, no nothing; dead dead DEAD. Furthermore, their soul becomes entangled with your own - they cannot be ressurected, reincarnated or the like without you being physically present at the ritual, and if you die before then their soul is carried off to final judgement with you, never to be reborn again. If, however, they are not able to be harmed by any weapon or resource you currently have access to - you've wasted your chance.

Languages of Megara - GLOG/OSR

 Megara is a world where the spoken word carries a lot of weight, all magic comes from Words of the lingua supernal, the ontologically perfect language from which the One God sung the world into being. If you are a sorcerer then you already speak lingua supernal, albeit like a grunting beast that has been taught to yowl a roughly understandable approximation of it's immaculate beauty. It's not really the sort of thing you use to converse with other mortals though, for its clarity of meaning is so pure that reality - itself merely an echo of its speech - changes to match it. All classes in Megara have a supernatural capstone ability in which they acquire and internalise one Word of the lingua supernal, be it the Soulknife's understanding of the Blade that lets them cut even the immaterial, or the binding oaths and invincible sangfroid that come from a Caste Noble's Blood.

But there are other languages, ones less blasting and unbearable in their clarity but safe for common use. All characters begin knowing one of these mortal tongues, plus another for every point of Intelligence bonus they have. Additional languages can attempt to be learned as a season action, at a cost of 500gp of tuition and books. An already known language can attempt to be mastered, also taking a season action and 1000gp. In either case the chance of successfully learning or mastering the language is 1:6, modified by Intelligence Modifier and number of prior attempts, if any. A starting character may at their choice spend two starting languages to master one. 

As all languages are debased forms of the lingua supernal, mastering one has a small supernatural effect. Some languages have a written form that is rarely used or exclusive to the higher caste, and must be learned seperately from the spoken tongue.

Cthondine
Cthond was the mightiest of the great magiocracies that controlled the western continent. The Jet Obelisks that demarked the territories of the Cthondine Autocracy can be found as far to the south as Heraclium and as far to the north as the banks of the Ypra River - and when the Ironmen came south across that river, Cthond was the first to feel their wrath. Yet today the legacy of Cthond is its tongue, spoken even further abroad after its fall than it was at its height. Cthondine has a complex system of conjugations that make it highly accurate, but can lead a novice speaker to stumble into clownish malapropism.
Written: Yes
Mastery: Cthondine is especially suited to giving commands. When NPC's under your command fail a Morale check, you may reroll one of the dice - the second result stands.

Emmanican
A land plagued with a surfeit of philosophers, Emmanica is the archipelago home to a people of omnivorous intellect that has stood largely untroubled by either sorcery or barbarians for centuries and is only now beginning to stretch its muscles and feel its own strength. Emmanican is sybilant and methodical, with a great richness in its description of the World as it relates to the Self.
Written: Yes
Mastery: Your grounding in Emmanican formal logic reduces the duration of mind-affecting evocations and other such magical effects by half. If ordinarily permanent, you are permitted a saving throw to cast off the enchantment once per week.

Kikalese
The Kikala plateu would be unremarkable save for its people; herdsmen who claim the title of King, sorcerers who are considered holy rather than damned, and the only people whose reputation for martial excellence is sufficiently great to deter even the rapacious Tongen Khaganate. Kikalese is rapid and onomatopoeic, containing barked consonants designed to be heard clearly over long distances against the mountain wind.
Written: No
Mastery: You can predict the weather and track herd animals with 85% accuracy. It's probably worth remembering that horses are herd animals.

Sassálid
Ancient rivals of the Autarchs of Cthond, the Sassálid Imperium was a place steeped in the twin scourges of power and luxury. Having long since subjected nearly the entirety of the southern continent to their imperial dominion and reigned unopposed for over a millennium the Sassálid Pashas were free to bask in the reflected glory of their ancestors and invent ever more impressive titles for themselves. Sassálid is an unctuous tongue, drifting from the lips like incense smoke.
Written: Yes
Mastery: You reroll any result of immediate hostility on reaction rolls with demons, and they will be marginally more reasonable in dealing with you, accepting any offered compromise as long as it is not massively favouring you over them, e.g. taking the souls of two captives rather than yours.

Tongen
Tongue of the rising power of the Tong Khaganate, currently the largest and by far the most precocious empire in the world. It has become the lingua franca of the entire eastern hemisphere and is required to use the Lam, the Khaganate's extensive mail system - by imperial decree the Lam will carry no message that is not written exclusively in Tongen. Tongen is a forthright language, filled with plosive consonants.
Written: Yes, must be learned seperately from spoken.
Mastery: You can convey broad meanings to horses and eagles, they will understand and will obey commands as long as they are favourably disposed to you or sufficiently bribed. They can reply to you but only in exclamations of 'Yes!', 'No!', 'Here!' or 'Danger!'

Nuncerian Glyphs
Nobody needs to learn Nuncerian, this eldritch language more than any other carries potent resonance with the lingua supernal, with some calling it the written language of God. First discovered on the plains of Nunceria, when a mighty earthquake unearthed buried steles etched with the history of a long-vanished prehuman people. The contents of the steles were deemed so awfully heretical and in contravention of all decency and truth that they were smashed to pieces and scattered into the ocean. Still, more and more Nuncerian markers are still discovered from time to time and the Cthondine Autocracy was fond of using it to issue proclamations throughout its expanse, so that none could claim ignorance of the law. Words written in Nuncerian Glyphs are automatically understood by their beholders, without having to learn it.
Written: Yes, only.
Mastery: You can now write Nuncerian Glyphs, with all that entails. Nuncerian Glyphs require a third dimension to function, and so must be inscribed upon stone, wood or clay with appropriate tools.

Yrensprecht
The Ironmen are still considered the epitome of the barbarian by all people south of the Ypra, and are viewed as much as boogeymen as they are fellow humans. Still, some small amount of trade and congress does take place along the border of old Cthond, and a cunning merchant does well to learn the rudiments of their harsh, growling tongue if they are to acquire their incomparable tools and arms of Steely Iron in return for the perfumes, silks and wines of the south. Its written form is called Brande, angular runes designed to be carved with a blade or chisel, and is almost exclusively the province of the Ironmen's priest-caste.
Written: Yes, must be learned seperately from spoken - never taught willingly to non-Ironmen.
Mastery: If you spend a round spitting invective at a sorcerer who is casting an evocation you may roll a D6 and deduct the result from the [sum] of their working, on a 4-6 you also deduct 1 [dice] from their working, but cannot perform this trick again until you have rested your voice for 8 hours.

True nobility is exempt from fear - GLOG Class: Caste Noble

Quite by coincidence at least two other noble-themed GLOG classes have been published in the last week. Much like busses, you wait all day for one then three come at once.

You are a Caste Noble, a descendent of great heroes - or exceptionally successful cattle rustlers. In truth, if you go back far enough, there is often little difference. You may wear any armour or shields you wish. You cannot fumble with swords, maces, bows or lances, unless wielding a magical version of those weapons in a formal duel.

Starting Skill: roll twice; 1. Command 2. Heraldry 3. Hunting 4. Character Judgement 5. Siegecraft 6. Logistics

Equipment: Three bronze weapons of your choice, a bronze breastplate and helm, a shield bearing a personal device, a bad tempered warhorse, a signet ring, cloth-of-gold clothes, 3d6x50gp worth of jewellery, one item of choice or two rolls on the Heirlooms & Inheritances table, and a sense of entitlement a mile wide.

Every template gives +1 To Hit & +1 to Reaction Rolls

A: Warborn, Sobriquet, Retainers

B: Raise Banners +1 Retainer 

C: Crush Resistance +1 Retainer

D: Corona, +1 Retainer

A: Warborn

You have the rare quality of Nobility, which is a kind of disregard for the value of life combined with the skill and ability to take it. Against brigands, peasant militia, savage demihumans and beasts, along with anyone else who doesn't have a lifetime of training in battle and hunting (like Soulknives and Ironmen), you roll damage on the following table, using the damage die of your weapon;

1-3 1HD

4-6 2HD

7-9 3HD

10+ 4HD

You kill the indicated number of HD worth of foes. Most peasants, bandits and goblins have 1HD or fractions thereof. Any excess carries over to any other foes in range if your weapon. Be sure to lovingly describe the comical slaughter you inflict.

A: Sobriquet

Your deeds affect the lives of many, and so by them you are known. You start being known as either The Great or The Terrible, at your choice. Your actions in the course of play may change this.

If you are known as The Great, any reaction rolls of Uncertain are automatically upgraded to Friendly. Reroll any result of Immediate Attack. Your social inferiors are welcoming and talk openly and frankly around you, but slow to bend to your wishes.

If you are known as The Terrible, any reaction rolls of Uncertain are automatically set to Leave, and any rolls of Immediate Attack are instead rolled as Possible Attack. Reroll any results of Friendly. Your social inferiors are obsequious and obedient, but avoid your pesence and talking about anything that may anger you.

Regardless of your Sobriquet, you are recognised as highborn and may own land, wear armour in a city, and can demand trial by a jury of your peers.

A: Retainers

You have [Templates] servants of exceptional loyalty, whose families have served yours for generations. All have stats as a 0-level man-at-arms. They do not count against your normal hireling limit. If killed a replacement can be obtained on a roll of 2:6 for each month spent in civilisation. Roll from the following table, but your first one is always a Dogsbody, lamentably;

1. Dogsbody: A man with no brain, or the wit to be disloyal. Equipped with livery and a concealed knife, no special traits beyond absolutely unflinching loyalty and obedience - seriously, they will do anything you command - but can carry, set up tents, build fires and cook (badly). Has some kind of odious personal habit, like nose picking or chewing tobacco.

2. Torturer: A terrible person, of singular skill. Equipped with an executioner's sword and splint mail. Can extract d3-1 answers to questions of your choice from a helpless person, no save allowed, but the victim will surely die.

3. Sage: A wise man, devoted to learning. Equipped with a belt knife but will not participate in combat unless cornered. Can identify magical items with a 2:6 accuracy rate per day of study and provide mundane answers on topics of history, geography, theology and art.

4. Bodyguard: The most deserving of retirement, the least likely to attain it. Equipped with a breastplate, shield and spear. Can take a hit for you, at the cost of being taken out of the fight. He gets back up on 1HP as soon as danger is passed, unless a merciless foe takes the time to kill him while he's down or you quit the field.

5. Courtier: Perfumed, silver-tongued, deceitful - and on your side. Equipped with a ceremonial tipstaff - counts as a club, but will not fight if they can flee. Can secure you a meeting with any prominent public figure in d4 days, and allow you to be treated according to your station even in lands hostile to your own.

6. Assassin: Soft of voice, soft of step, dead of eye. Equipped with a leather jerkin, a sap and a poisoned stiletto. Give him the name of an NPC and as many pieces of information about a given target they would wish to keep secret as you can. He has a [secrets]:6 chance of killing them by the next morning, as long as their HD is equal or lower than yours, otherwise he dies unless on a roll of a 1. Nameless NPC's of no importance can be dispatched without a roll, but it will still take a day.

7. Poison Taster: Possessed of a strong stomach, in every sense. Equipped with a dagger and a pouch of medicinal charcoal. Can identify potions for you by taste, and has a 3:6 chance of ignoring any negative effects after hurriedly stuffing down a handful of charcoal.

8. Confessor: An accessory to your many sins. Equipped with a crozier (counts as a club) and gambeson. If you are subject to a curse, they have a 4:6 chance to be able to tell you the exact steps (penances) needed to break it. On a 1, it's very easy.

9. Physician: A scholar from foreign lands with foreign ideas, like hygiene. Equipped with a gambeson, dagger and healer's kit. While he is in your entourage you have +1HP per level, these are lost at a rate of 1HP per day if he leaves or dies.

10. Artist: A weak and tortured man, his memory will outlive you. Doesn't accompany you on adventures, but you may choose to spend money funding his works - you gain no benefit for cash spent in this way, but in the event of your death the gold spent becomes the XP total for your next character.

B: Raise Banners

Any men-at-arms under your direction gain a bonus to their attack rolls and AC equal to your Templates in this class. With a week of drilling peasant militia, you can pacify an inhabited hex of any trouble related to banditry, humanoid attacks or dangerous mundane animals. 

C: Crush Resistance

Any successful attack you make while charging deals an automatic critical hit. If you are also mounted on a horse or chariot, enemies subject to such a charge must immediately test morale.

D: Corona

You apprehend the true name Blood, and may teach it to sorcerers if you wish, they will expect to have to do you a great service in return. You are immune to emotion-based attacks and effects, and may freely control your own blood temperature. Furthermore, any oath sworn in your presence while you bear a bleeding wound, no matter how shallow, is magically binding, with the consequences determined by the wording of the oath. Any such oath must be prefaced by the affirmation "I swear" or "I promise". If you force a bandit to forswear all villainy on pain of death and he agrees, even at swordpoint, then fate will conspire to ensure that his next crime is his last. Any oaths you swear to uphold yourself are just as binding.

Heirlooms & Inheritances

1. A crumbling keep on a rugged (two of the following keywords; rocky, barren, lawless) bit of land, many leagues and multiple terrain hazards away from any large settlement. Would take an investment of a small fortune to make it profitable, but it could be done.

2. A war chariot that once took part in the royal lion-hunt, horses not included.

3. An extensive cosmetics kit, including perfume essences.

4. A distinctive barrel seal, its imprint can only be forged on a 1:6.

5. A pair of incredibly good boots - passed down from your grandfather, having been through multiple wars, and still look just elegantly vintage.

6. A leopardskin cloak, the head of the beast taxidermied to act as a pauldron. Adds a sufficiently exotic flair to make any ensemble fit for court.

7. Five arm-bands of gold-chased bronze. Give one to someone who swears service to you to raise their loyalty bonus by +15.

8. A pair of overshoes mounted on inch-high copper rings. Keeps the hem of your cloak out of the muck, and incidentally lets you walk over caltrops unharmed.

9. Ancestor scrolls, detailing your lineage and your ancestor's significant accomplishments. Allows you to reroll failed Saves versus Fear, if  succumbing would cause you shame in their eyes.

10. The inlaid horn of an extinct auroch, sacred in a time when the gods walked among men. Wine that has been poured from it is as mystically potent as blood.

11. A longsword made from steely iron, left behind by the Ironmen and expertly maintained since.

12. D6 clay blessing tablets. Break them on the steps of a temple to gain a bonus to endeavours related to the god's purview for the next day.

13. D6 clay curse tablets. Throw them against the dwelling of a hated enemy to give him a penalty to a particular action of your choosing equal to the number of tablets smashed for the rest of the day.

14. A mail-piercing poignard dagger, made of iron. Reduces the AV of non-plate armour by 2. Snaps on a natural 1.

15. A set of books and scrolls containing treatises on three of the following subjects, enough to make the reader an armchair expert; 1. Warfare 2. Statecraft 3. Law 4. Myths & Legends 5. Geography 6. Imaginitive Lovemaking.

16. A folding wax tablet and stylus, for making impromtu notes. 

17. Two Scytale, a cipher rod used to encode messages. Your family patriarch also has an identical one.

18. A lacquered box containing number of common poisons, measured out in microdoses. Using them to kill someone would make you reviled as a coward for the rest of your life, but as long as you consume them regularly you have a +4 bonus to Saves vs. poison.

19. A ball of fine silk twine, remarkably strong and light, 100 meters long.

20. An unusual trinket, roll d6;

1. A sphere of runed iron, the size of an olive. While it is in contact with your skin your body is, metaphysically, considered to be made of iron without actually changing substance. Sorcerers will shrink from you like you were a leper while wearing it.

2. FIVE LIONS RAMPANT - a (+1) tulwar of immaculum, hilt of gold and ivory. Twirling it over your head produces the sound of a host of roaring big cats.

3. The deed to a haunted mansion, which you have to survive the night in to claim ownership. If you succeed, all the tenant spirits become your sworn vassals.

4. A black ribbon, attached to a token of tomb-silver. Can be exchanged for the services of the Assassin's Guild in eliminating any one subject. They will keep sending progressively more deadly agents until the target is dead, or return the token with an apology and a really nice bottle of wine.

5. The porcelain death-mask of your line's founder, decorated with carnelian tears. While wearing it undead roll for reaction with you as normal and can be conversed with, even non-sentient undead - though some knowledge of ancient languages may be required. Those who are hostile were probably slain by your ancestor.

6. An ivory cameo of an elven princess, set in repousséd gold, token of an ancestor's ancient tryst. While holding it close you can see dimly in darkness out to a range of 30ft - enough to fight and navigate around a room in pitch blackness, but not to read or make out facial features - and can passively sense the presence of hidden doors on a 1:6.

Consider: there is no such thing as a sword. - Soulknife - (GLOG Class)

 The best warriors in the world are the yak herders of West Kikala. None deny this, though it shames the caste-nobles and their pretensions of martial excellence. But while these dusty herdsmen learn the art of cutting from a young age they carry no swords, for swords make a warrior lazy. If you cannot cut without a blade, can you in truth be said to have performed the cut or was it the World? Such is the koan by which they order their lives. The young and inexperienced are permitted to learn how to fight with knives of stone they have chosen and knapped themselves. This is mere training though, and they are not considered fit to join the other warriors in battle until they can cut with a splash of water flicked from their fingertips. When they can behead a mountain lion with a gust of wind slapped from their palm their family celebrate that they are now fit to marry. It is not until they have apprehended the way to cut with thought alone, proving they can cut without the permission of the World, that they may call themselves a king, teach a new generation of herdsmen and form their own herd.

In their own tongue these warriors call themselves Gircara. Belying their incredible  skills it means simply 'protector of yaks' - because even meaning itself they cut down to its essence, shorn of all ornament and pretence. Foreigners, who typically lack this wisdom, call them Soulknives.

- Heliormas of Emmanica, Historia Mundi

A warrior who can be unarmed is no warrior.

Class: Yak Guard
Each template gives +1 to Hit or +1 to Melee Damage and +1 HP. Yak Guard may not wear armour or use shields unless they have another class that allows it (though bear in mind that this will scupper your social potential among your people), and only risk fumbling with weapons they have not modified with their own hands.

Skill: Roll twice; 1. Animal Care 2. Alertness 3. Tracking 4. Fording 5. Mountaineering 6. Rope Use

Starting Equipment: 2d4 stone daggers, walking stick, warm homespun clothes, a knapsack, a week's yak-jerky and dried berries, waterskin, 2d6 tea bricks worth 1gp in trade each. One Memento of Home from the table below.

A: Soulknife, Lodge
B: Impossible Step
C: Unerring Cut
D: Knife to the Soul

A: Soulknife
When you cut you aim for it to be you that does the cutting, and not the World. You start being able to wield any solid object that has a discernible edge as if it was a medium melee weapon or light throwing weapon. A stone knife is traditional, but you could do the same with anything as long as you yourself have given it an edge.
You snap a chairleg over your knee and drive the point through your foe's breastbone. You scrape a flat rock along the cliff-face and swing its chipped edge like a hand-axe.

At Template B you can do the same with liquids, if you employ a liquid that has a special quality like poison or wine then your attacks take on that quality too. At this point onwards, your Soulknife attacks count as magical, for purposes of hurting things that can only be harmed by magic.
You dip your hand into a river and pull out a dagger of glimmering water. You spit a mouthful of tea through your betrayers' eye like it was a dagger.

At Template C you can cut with gases, vapours and fire, as with liquids your attacks take on the properties of whatever you draw them from.
Your seemingly wild haymaker misses your foe's face by several inches, but the gust of wind from your sleeve bisects their head. With a snort of contempt you pin the rat to the floorboards with an arrow of pipe-smoke shot from your right nostril.

At Template D you can cut with will alone, you can hit anything you can perceive out to the range of a thrown dagger - the sense doesn't matter, if you can hear or smell an invisible foe, you can cut them - and don't even need to be able to move to cut and parry.
Standing still as stone, the king parried every blow with rainbow-hued spars of light that flashed into being around him. With an angry word alone, your foe stumbles back, blood streaming from a dozen cuts.

Surprise! It's a heckin' Avatar class all along.

A: Lodge
You choose a Lodge to belong to, each Lodge teaches a different fighting style that incorporates special techniques called Sleights. To determine your starting Sleights roll a d6 twice and consult your Lodge's list. Each time you level up you roll again, if you roll one you already have go up or down the list until you get to one you don't. You also gain your Lodge's Mark and Vow.

You activate Sleights using your Soul Die. The Soul Die resets to a d6 whenever you take a rest. If you roll a 1 on your Soul Die or score a critical hit it increases a die size, to a maximum of d12. If you roll your Soul Die's maximum value it decreases by one die size, if it is already a d4 you lose your Soul Die until you rest or score a critical hit. You also lose your Soul Die if you break your Lodge's Vow.

When you deal damage with your Soulknife you can roll your Soul Die and add its [sum] to the damage. 

You can also do the same when you are attacked and add your [sum] to your Defence for the rest of the round, or until you roll again.

B: Impossible Step
You can run up and along vertical planes, though not ceilings, and along the surface of water. You have to keep moving every round or you fall. At Template C: you can also use fog, clouds, windblown leaves and the like as if they were valid platforms to run across.

C: Unerring Cut
You may now attack twice per round. Furthermore, even if you miss you may roll your Soul Die and deal its damage to the target.

D: Knife to the Soul
You apprehend the truename Blade. It should be impossible for you to be a Sorcerer if you have reached this Template but you can teach a Sorcerer the Name Blade if you wish. They will expect to have to pay you handsomely for the honour. 

You can now cut the soul of things, not just the meat which is merely a shadow of the truths and abstractions at their core. You can murder love, slit the throat of memory, or shank faith and leave it to bleed out. You can even use it in beneficial ways, as you can deal damage to possessing entities without harming their host or even cut traumatic memories from someone's mind. If the target doesn't want you to cut the targeted abstraction from them they may make a saving throw. You can only target things which inhabit the victim's mind and soul - memories, emotions, derangements, and demons (even spells, in a setting that has Wizards) are fair game, connections like kingship and property that exist outside the orbit of their soul are not.

Your Soul Die now defaults to d8 when you rest.

LODGES
All Yak Guard join a warrior lodge from a young age to start their education in Gircara martial arts and philosophy. Most villages have only one lodge, but some larger communities have two or more who all compete for students.

Cut what you will.

Lodge of the Red River
Mark: Red Sash
Vow: Never retreat from a fight.
A hardline lodge, known for their strict adherence to the principles of martial honour. Their adepts were always highly respected but never much liked until the invasion of the Ironmen, where they gathered themselves enough glory as to keep students flocking to their doors for a century since.

Sleights;

1. Break Banks: On a successful soulknife hit, reduce your SD size by one step to deliver a bleeding cut, the victim bleeds for 1HP per round for a number of rounds equal to your SD's former [max] or until they receive healing. One victim can receive multiple bleeding cuts at once.
2. Blood in the Water: When you roll [max] on your SD it explodes. You still only lower your SD size by one step, no matter how many times it explodes.
3. Return to the Source: Lose d6HP, your SD increases by one size.
4. Pirhana Devours Yak: Reduce your SD by one size to make an additional attack with your soulknife this round. You may do this as often as you are able.
5. Flow Pure: Roll your SD whenever you must save against poison or disease and add its [sum] as a bonus.
6. Frozen River: Reduce your SD by one size when you deal damage with your soulknife. Your victim must save or be stunned for a number of rounds equal to your SD's former [max].

Lodge of the Sun Calf
Mark: Orange Turban
Vow: Never initiate violence against the living.

One of the newer lodges, established by a group of converts to the faith of the Second Prophet. The faith had previously had little penetration among the Kikalese until an enterprising missionary realised that one of their core metaphors, "the lamb of G_d", had little purchase among animistic people who herded yaks, and promptly improvised.

Sleights;

1. Truth Shines: Reduce your SD by one die size, you gain the ability to see through illusion and invisibility for a number of rounds equal to its former [max].
2. Rays of the Dawn: Reduce your SD size one step. Make a thrown weapon attack with your soulknife against a number of different targets equal to your former SD [max]/2.
3. Darkness Flees: Your SD damage is doubled against daemons, undead and other creatures of darkness.
4. Noonday Brilliance: Reduce your SD by one size when you deal damage with your soulknife. Your victim must save or be blinded for a number of rounds equal to your SD's former [max].
5. Armoured in Light: Your Defence gains a bonus equal to your SD's [max]/2.
6. Darkest Before Dawn: When you take more damage than your SD's [max], increase your SD by one die size.

Lodge of the Rainy Mountain
Mark: Turquoise Armband.
Vow: Never refuse hospitality offered by someone who has never done you harm.

Celebrated rangers of the mountain passes, warriors of the Rainy Mountain lodge have a reputation for joviality, daring and free spiritedness. They are also known for ruthlessly hurling any who would threaten their herds from the mountainsides and laughing as their corpses dash against the rocks below. 

Sleights;

1. Relentless Downpour: When you hit with a soulknife attack, you can choose to do [max]/2 extra damage with your SD instead of rolling.
2. Fall Like Lightning: You can fall from any distance without harm, for every 10ft fallen you can roll your SD and deal the cumulative [sum] lightning damage to anyone within 10' of your landing spot.
3. Howling Wind: When you hit with a soulknife attack, throw your target [sum] meters in a direction of your choice.
4. Walk Between Raindrops: Reduce your SD size one step. You flawlessly dodge or parry the next [max] projectile attacks targeting you within the next turn. This includes magic attacks that require an attack roll, but not those that require a save or do not allow one.
5. Raindrop Breaks Boulder: Roll your SD, your attacks ignore [max]/2 points of Defence for [sum] rounds.
6. Mountain Anvil, Rain Hammer: When your SD and damage die roll the same value, both their [sum] are doubled.

d12 Mementos of Home

1. An amulet of iron nails, counts as 1 inventory slot of iron for purposes of Sorcery.
2. A brass teapot and cups, engraved with abstract depictions of mountain trees.
3. A riding yak with saddle and blanket.
4. A mouth-harp, believed to attract benevolent spirits when played well.
5. A set of pigments and yak-hair brushes.
6. D3+1 bundles of medicinal herbs, provide an additional save vs. poison and disease when drunk brewed into tea.
7. An iron dagger, given to you as an insult by a rival.
8. A waxed cloth tarpaulin, waterproof.
9. An ancestor scroll, recording your entire lineage back 10+2d6 generations.
10. A yak-hair rope, 50' long.
11. A handheld butter-lamp, comes with 6 hours worth of yak-ghee.
12. A tasseled rug, covered with intricate abstract patterns.

Edits:

1. Changed the defensive Soul Die option to a Defence bonus instead of damage reduction, thanks to Vayra for that suggestion.
2. Altered the mechanics for Armoured in Light and Walk Between Raindrops sleights to reflect above change.

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.

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.