Logomancy

by Matthew R. Norwood (rowan@media.mit.edu)
 
POLONIUS: What do you read, my lord?

HAMLET: Words, words, words.


Logomancy is a school of magick that derives from the power of words and language.  In keeping with the idea that magick arises form the non-standard use of standard things, the logomancer is someone who has come to recognize words for what they are in and of themselves, independent of the meanings we attach to them.  Logomancers use language in ways that transcend the everyday communication that the uninitiated engage in.

Logomancers come from all over the place: Zen Buddhists, linguists, and poets all live in a world where words are not what most of us take them for.  They tend to talk and write in highly metaphorical, often paradoxical statements and questions.

Logomancy Blast Style: Similar to Plutomancy's blast, Logomancy causes the target to harm himself.  The spell, "That's no lady..." can cause the target to engage in self-destructive behavior by forcing him to believe that he can fly, that getting hit by a car would be really cool, that life is meaningless and he ought to kill himself, etc.

Stats:

Generate a Minor Charge:

Generate a Significant Charge:

Generate a Major Charge:

Taboo: A Logomancer loses all of her charges whenever she uses language in a straightforward fashion: a statement or question with no metaphor, no double meanings, phrased as directly as possible.  This often happens in combat, when a shouted warning or call for help pushes the adept to resort to language in its base, banal, everyday function.

Random Magick Domain: Anything that deals with words and their meaning can be manipulated with Logomancy.

Starting charges: Starting Logomancers have four minor charges.

Logomancy Minor Formula Spells

If you know what I mean
Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: This spell allows the Logomancer to communicate with one other person through a secret language or code.  To others, their conversation will sound normal, but the actual meaning will be concealed.  They can leave notes for each other, talk on the phone, or even pass messages through another person, as long as the words are transmitted verbatim.  The effect lasts one hour, but notes and other records remain intelligible for a week.
Read between the lines
Cost: 2 minor charges

Effect: This spell allows the logomancer to determine general information about someone from the way they write or talk.  If exposed to a few minutes of someone's speech or a few paragraphs of their text, the Logomancer can determine the speaker or writer's goals, emotional state, background, and current situation.  This is widely left up to the GM's discretion.
Minor Blast: Mercenary Will
Cost: 4 minor charges

Effect: See Plutomancy.  The target must hear or read the command to be executed.
Cryptomancer
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: The adept can use this spell to completely and instantly break a code, getting at the underlying information.  It can also be applied to a foreign language, allowing instant translation for one hour.
Whatchoo talkin' about Willis?
Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: For one minute, the adept can control exactly what the target understands when reading or hearing words.  An order from a superior can be heard as something completely different, an commercial on the radio can be turned into a news bulletin about an earthquake, or a greeting from a comrade can be heard as an insult.  This doesn't change a speaker's conversational style, just the meaning of his or her words.  It also doesn't change the words used by the target in response.
 
A hero ain't nothin' but a sandwich
Cost: 3 minor charges

Effect: This spell changes the meaning of one word in the target's vocabulary.  The target can relearn the word's "standard" meaning, but it will take a little while to remember what it's supposed to mean.  In the meantime, interesting effects can be created by making "yes" mean "no" or something similar.
 

Logomancy Significant Formula Spells

Instant Aphasia
Cost: 4 significant charges

Effect: The target of this spell suddenly loses the ability to communicate verbally with other people in one language, permanently.  He speaks and hears gibberish, although he hears himself speaking normally.  This will probably result in some Helplessness and Isolation stress checks.  The target can relearn the language by listening to people around him -- the grammar remains the same, only the words change meanings -- but it will take lots of time.  Assume that the target can relearn the language as a skill, with 10% plus (General Education/10) as a native level.
 
Significant Blast: Bankrupt Will
Cost: 1 significant charge

Effect: see Plutomancy.  The target has to hear or read a command to harm himself.  On the up side, however, this means that
 
I Believe The Lies
Cost: 3 significant charges

Effect: see Cliomancy.  For Logomancy, however, the statement to be believed must be heard or read by the target.
 
spell
Cost: significant charge

Effect:
spell
Cost: significant charge

Effect:
spell
Cost: significant charge

Effect:
spell
Cost: significant charge

Effect:
 

Logomancy Major Effects