Creation

Where magic is the use of esoteric power, the various “mundane” arts of the creator all work via the material world. Alchemists, crafters and surgeons are still weaving the magic of the world (because all things in the world of Renewal are magical), but they are doing so through the application of the blade, the hammer, and the mortar and pestle, applying their will through the work of their hands.

There are three main categories of creation.

• Alchemy: Alchemy is the most mystical of the “mundane” arts, refining and concentrating the power in herbs, animal parts and other natural substances to produce powerful potions, vicious poisons, and the many inks and amalgams, resins, pastes and other mixtures for which they’re known.

• Crafting: The broadest of the creator’s arts, crafting is the manufacture of tools, weapons, clothing, jewellery and other worked things. Artisans, blacksmiths and jewellers work with wood, metal, leather, gemstones and all manner of gathered materials to fashion all the things their friends and clients need.

• Surgery: The workings of the body are the preoccupation of the surgeon. Whether tending to their comrades’ wounds in battle or tending the sick when struck down by disease, whether grafting and transplanting organs, enhancing people’s natural powers or altering them beyond recognition, the surgeon is both healer and transformer.

All three disciplines offer deeper secrets, for those with an eye for experimentation: alchemists can uncover new formulas and processes, while crafters can develop complex devices or remarkable new materials, and surgeons can explore radical new changes to the living body.

Creative Method Although alchemy, crafting and surgery are constrained by the natural laws within which they work, they are still strongly shaped by the creator’s beliefs and worldview, much as a magician’s arts are. One creator might be stringently theoretical, analysing and measuring everything before picking up a tool; another might be wildly experimental, trialing every idea as it comes to mind. One might think exclusively in terms of the flows of magic from one form or state to another, while another might concern themselves entirely with the materials with which they are working, and a third might obsess over form and structure. The fae were said to transcend the difference between mundane and magical working, changing a thing’s underlying pattern through pure will. Mechanically, a crafter’s, alchemist’s or surgeon’s method has little effect on the game, but it can influence what tools they use and generate roleplay, and will play a significant role in research.

Work Units

Most creator skills grant a number of work units, required to create or alter anything:

• A character with one skill that uses work units has a base of 10 points per day,
• Someone with two skills has 15 points per day, and
• With three or more skills, 20 points per day.

Characters with the creator archetype can purchase up to 10 additional work units, for a total maximum of 30 per day.

Work units represent the creator’s capacity to concentrate and exert themselves every day. Higher quality workspaces grant more work units.

Unlike magic points, the player does not need any visible way of tracking these points; all work units must be spent at the character’s workplace, and are logged and tracked by the referee dispensing the relevant cards.

“Mundane” Cosmology Crafting, alchemy and surgery aren’t exactly like real-world science or engineering. The world of Renewal is a magical one, and while the creator’s mechanical actions – cutting and moulding, sewing and staining, smelting and grinding – directly shape the objects of their work, it’s ultimately the creator’s will and intent that changes their underlying pattern. That is, both the physical act and the will of the creator are essential. And since all things are made of magic, what mundane work does, in the end, is move magic around: crafting tends to strip magic out to clear impurities; alchemy tends to concentrate magic to enhance its properties; and surgery does neither – since magic constantly flows through the body – but blocks, dams or redirects magic to change the body’s functioning. This tends to affect how the products of mundane work interact with magical skills. Crafted objects, being low in magic, are eminently suited to receiving magical investment, while it is notoriously dangerous to try to add more magic to already magically-dense alchemical brews.