Praxis: Rank 2

Rank 2 Praxis

(Difficulty 19)

"As I Have Spoken"

Effects at this rank of Praxis call forth the substance of your desire and your intention into the is.

Start the effect with a declaration of what you shall achieve.

Typically this is several sentences—about 7-40 words, using about 15 seconds of real time (not counting hesitation, panic, uncertainty, and "um," so let's call it "up to a minute.") This is usually made in character, which is to say, you use the same declaration in real life that your character silently affirms. If this is impossible for some reason—e.g., your character is declaring an image that you don't have the time or skill to quickly draw, or your character doesn't quite know what they're doing but you do—then you can spend a few more sentences clarifying.

In any case, though, the core is something that your character is focusing their mind and intention and actions to achieve, and something of a mundane character. (That specifically means that you're not trying to manipulate the abstract magical environment like power tokens, diodes, and so forth—it's OK if you want to achieve something magical like enspelling someone or squeezing through a passage smaller than your head or whatnot.) You then spend the next three rounds acting on this intention and make a roll; if nothing interferes, and if you succeed, then your declaration joins the is.

The effects of Praxis are limited to the component in which you act, plus the surrounding generic continuum. It's OK if it diffuses somewhat to affect others, but when you're acting on somebody far away who isn't connected to you with the scene rules above it doesn't have the clear character of the is.

In a similar fashion, actions, in order to interfere with you, have to have a path (connection or diode) to the component in which you act. Nobody in Rome gets to do something that randomly messes with your action in Santa Ynez, at least, not unless they're already magically a "part" of what's going on.

Should you fail the roll, or should someone interfere with your action, then the magic of your declaration falls into the would have been. It remains with you, echoing, but does not manifest. If you both fail the roll and are interfered with, or if the interference is of a particularly perverse or effective character (see the rules for certain Mist effects), then your declaration becomes part of the might have been instead.

Here's an example:

• Declaration: "I'm going to ace this math test."
• Praxis: you ace the math test.

What if you fail the roll? Then you don't ace the test; you just would have aced the test. If . . . something had been different. If you'd been better at magic, or if you'd studied differently, or something. The matter is ambiguous. If someone sabotages your efforts and you fail the roll, then it's more like, wow, you really told yourself you were going to ace that test, didn't you? But in the end that was just a dream, a myth, a fantasy that dissipated on the morning. That's when reality sinks into your stomach like a cold hard stone and you find yourself weeping mathlessly into your milk. Or acelessly. Maybe even testlessly if this terrible conjunction of misfortunes has caused you to be unable to take the test at all.

You can use Praxis for more important things than simply acing math tests, if one accepts that education can pale beside other things in worth. For example, if you're suddenly stuck piloting a plane because the pilot has gone into deliria, you might try something like:

• Declaration: "I'm going to land this plane safely. On a cumulus cloud!"
• Praxis: you do exactly this. The problems that may follow on the heels of this endeavor are really nobody's fault but your own.

The skill that you may or may not have in piloting is irrelevant to the case, and so is the inherent improbability of the landing you have planned. These things color what you choose to do, what you decide on doing, and ultimately whether you're going to succumb to Mist—but the only major advantage of feasible action is that it helps you remain true to the world and who you are. And again if you succeed, and if you are not opposed, then your declaration becomes an element of the real.

That said—and bearing in mind that this is a description of modality and not of fallibility—you do have to be able to act to bring your declaration to pass. The rule of Praxis is that your intention is a thing you are trying to achieve. So you can certainly ace a math test even if you have no skill at math—but to do so you must enact a plan or series of uncoordinated actions in service to that intention. You may land a plane on a cloud, even though clouds are typically gaseous and fairies unpracticed in piloting planes, but you have to set out to achieve this goal and take a series of sensible actions to that end. If necessary or desirable, either to yourself or to the GM (or to the other players, but mostly only if you or the GM wish to satisfy their curiosity), you should make a short statement in each round (again, 1-2 sentences) explaining what you are doing towards your declaration.

This would look something as follows:

• Declaration: "I'm going to land this plane safely. On a cumulus cloud!"
• Action #1: "I am frantically scanning instruments and pulling on things."
• Action #2: "I can see a cloud. I'm moving in!"
• Action #3: "I'm strengthening the cloud with glamour so that I have a place to land."

In rare cases, factual issues may raise their head at this juncture. For instance, the GM may say, in action #2, that no clouds are present. Or remind the player, in action #1, that they are not actually in a plane. If something like this happens, the player may then yield the action (as if preemptively failing the roll); try a new strategy; or request that the GM provide a reasonable alternative path to fulfilling either their original declaration or something closely related.

The fairy term for the result of such an action is a trod: a point of certainty in the vastness of the world. You are not creating a nexus, flow, connection, token, Mist, or anything of the sort: you are creating a single trod, a point of certainty on which to stand, a thing—if you succeed—that you have successfully done. This becomes part of the fabric of your component, fading with time only insofar as time renders the success itself irrelevant.

There are no fairy types that have a bonus on rank 2 Praxis, but Knacks often offer +1. For example a studious fairy could ace a test with an 18, and a terrifying wolf could scare someone with the same roll. Nexuses sometimes oppose the formation of contrary trods; in this case, the character must overcome the nexus' quality in order to succeed. Failure is counted just as if the character was successfully opposed; thus, in the unusual case of a nexus with quality 18, the character would either succeed (19+) and plant their trod in the is, or fail (18-) and have their action instantaneously banished into the might have been.

Elemental Spirits of Rank 2 Praxis include worgs, poltergeists, and pictsies, specializing respectively in "you are devoured in the woods;" "that object is broken;" and "this person has become mazed, disoriented, or lost." These creatures are not required to specify their actions insofar as their very existence is the enaction of their declared prophecy; should they take form and engage in other activities, this benefit ceases and they must perform actions to produce results in a normal fashion.