What is a Ritual?
A ritual is a powerful form of spellcasting that involves potent magics that are not commonly studied by scholars of the Art. All rituals have several things in common:
- All rituals require an appropriate scroll.
A scroll has all of the pertinent information regarding the spell, as well as an Item ID Number, and an official stamp and signature.
- All rituals require components.
These are various items that are utilized in some way during the ritual. These might be anything from precious gems to body parts from different creatures! The components for each ritual are different and are listed on the individual scrolls. These components are consumed when attempting to cast a ritual, whether the ritual is successful or not.
- All rituals take time to complete.
Unlike casting battle magic spells, ritual spells take longer to complete than simply reciting an incantation and throwing a packet. A ritual can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour or more to complete.
- All rituals require a specific lore skill depending on the type of ritual it is.
Each ritual may be categorized based on two criteria. These are School and Sub-school. For example: A Summon Fire Elemental ritual is in the Summoning school and the Elemental sub-school, so at the top of the scroll, it would read “School: Summoning | Elemental”. To be able to read and cast from a ritual scroll, your character must have the level in Rituals as is indicated on the scroll. If the ritual scroll has a sub-school listed, your character must have a translatable lore for the primary school. For example, you would not need a lore to cast a "Summoning" ritual, only the appropriate level in Rituals. However, you would need Elemental Lore or Elemental Fire Lore to cast a "Summoning | Elemental Fire" ritual.
- All rituals must be cast in a prepared space.
The magics invoked when performing rituals are potent and potentially unstable. Because of this, the ritual must be cast within a circle or a ritual area that has been properly prepared beforehand. How is this done? Why, FOIP of course!
- All rituals require adequate light.
Regardless of your character's opinion on light, you must have it to cast a ritual. At any point in time, you must be able to read a part of the scroll if asked to by a Ritual Marshal. If you can't see well enough to read the scroll, then you can't see well enough to cast it.
- All rituals must be officiated.
A ritual is much more complex than a normal battle-magic spell, and therefore success is not always guaranteed. Also, because of the intricacies of ritual casting, things don't always turn out the way you expect them to. Any ritual cast must be validated by a ritual marshal either during casting or immediately after completion of the ritual.
- All rituals require concentration.
As stated in item #5, the magics involved in a ritual spell are very volatile. As such, it requires complete concentration for the caster to properly blend ingredients, chant ancient mantras, and perform the necessary power-raising gestures. Therefore, any distraction during a ritual causes the ritual to automatically fail and can sometimes bring disastrous results. Examples of distractions include, but are not limited to: Talking that is unrelated to roleplaying the ritual, jumping at a loud noise, taking damage, sleeping, the flashlight you were using to represent a Light spell dying and therefore plunging you into darkness so that you can't see well enough to read the scroll, etc...
What else do I need to know about Ritual Magic?
Well, if you need to ask then you probably are not ready for it. You should Find Out In-Play (FOIP) anything you want to know about Rituals.