ENROL ritual ceremony special Church of Immortality sorcery spell
This spell must be cast on a willing recipient, who must sacrifice a point of POW. This makes the recipient a member of the C of I, and a subordinate of the caster and of all the caster's superiors. If the spell is cast on a recipient who is already a member, any subordinates of the recipient become subordinates of the caster and the caster's superiors as well. The recipient must still sacrifice a point of POW.
TRANSFER YOUTH ritual ceremony special Church of Immortality sorcery spell
This spell must be cast on a willing donor by a superior within the C of I. It transfers one year's worth of a quantity called "youth" from donor to caster per point of intensity.
The only effect on the donor is to make the aging rolls come sooner. An immature donor will not gain any SIZ or other characteristics. As long as no aging roll is failed, there is no apparent effect. As soon as a roll is failed, the donor will "age" to the age corresponding to the roll. That takes only minutes if happens during the ritual, a couple of weeks if it happens later.
The spell will not kill. If an aging roll made during the ceremony fails, and if this would kill the donor, the spell simply fails.
In the caster, the spell sets up a pool of youth. The effect of having such a pool varies with the age of the caster. In the unlikely event of an immature caster, the pool has no effect until maturity. A mature caster will not age until the pool is used up. This costs one day's worth of youth per day. An aged caster, that is one who has had to make aging rolls, will "age backwards". The caster grows one day younger per day, using up two days' worth of youth each day.
Rumor has it that the Vadeli use a similar spell, though with three major differences. Rather then working on subordinates, their spell works on descendant. Rather than being restricted to willing donors, it is restricted to the very young. Age limits of a year or a season or sometimes mentioned. And the Vadeli spell will kill.
Combobolatus of the IO temple in Carantes, who is widely regarded as the Empire's leading authority on the Vadeli, not that that means much, speculates that the spell used by the C of I and the Vadeli is the same. The spell works on descendants. The enrol spell is a ritual of adoption. The transfer youth spell works on willing targets, but the very youngest can not resist. That the C of I spell will not kill is a propaganda lie. It doesn't matter much anyway, since the C of I usually casts only one or two points at a time, and never on those feeble with age.
NOTES: the spell will not yield more youth than the donor has. That is, if a donor in a ten point spell is killed by two years of aging, the yield is two years worth of youth, not ten. Determine adult stats for immature donors. Loosing one point of DEX or STR will not kill a DEX 0 STR 1 baby.
A vampiric youth spell used by more solitary types ought to be lossy, I think. Maybe one year gained per 2 years lost, or intensity years lost, intensity - 2 years gained. Or you could multiply the loss by your Tap Youth skill. But a pyramid scheme is difficult enough to maintain without that kind of loss. If the yield was not one to one, it wouldn't work IMO.
Through both of these spell, a permanent change in the environment is magically caused. Does this mean that they should be enchantments? If advancement in the C of I required enchantment skill, its appeal would be much more limited. Anyone can cast ceremony spells (from spell matrixes).
Is one year per intensity too much?
Do Westerners use the five season calendar? If not, the rumor that the Vadeli spell works up to age one season is most likely false. Not that it isn't anyway. We all know that the Vadeli are really nice guys who would never do something like this, don't we?
Klaus O K
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #221
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