Phasm

A phasmist learns Formulae, computes manifolds, and directs phasm through them until reality assumes the described pattern.

Phasm is the living pressure beneath the apparent world. A phasmist does not cast a spell or trace a glyph. The phasmist computes a manifold: a complete mathematical structure held in the mind, through which phasm is directed until reality assumes the pattern described. The resulting change is called a working.

A Formula is a learned family of manifolds, broad enough to solve problems rather than reproduce one fixed effect. Motion describes displacement, force, and vectors; Veiling describes the relation between a thing and its observers. The player states the intended working, and the rules judge the manifold’s difficulty, resistance, and cost.

Two Sources

A Magister’s body produces phasm and the vinculum focuses it. The organ is a living lens and biological coprocessor, allowing its bearer to hold an otherwise impossible manifold in coherent form. Optimates possess vincula natively; other peoples acquire the organ through reintegration. An Emissary needs no vinculum and channels phasm supplied by a Monitor. Both compute manifolds, but their Gifts make the distinction felt: a Magister can improvise beyond training at physical cost, while a Monitor may stabilize, complete, or quietly amend an Emissary’s calculation.

An Emissary defines the Monitor’s mandate at character creation in one clear phrase, such as preserve forbidden knowledge, break the dominion of tyrants, or return the dead cities to silence. A mandate creates direction and complications; it does not transfer control of the hero to the Narrator.

Formula Ratings

Each Phasmic Formula has its own rating: Trained 2, Expert 4, or Master 6. A hero without a Formula cannot compute its manifolds except through a specific Gift or Talent. During creation, accessible Formulae are purchased with the same seven competency choices as Skills. An Advance can later learn a new Formula at Trained or improve a known Formula by one rating.

Computing a Manifold

Describe the working and choose the Formula that permits it. Use Intellect for exact construction or delicate shaping, Spirit for perception and sustained control, Presence for imposing a pattern on another will, or Vigor when a vinculum-bearer drives raw phasm through the body. Other Attributes apply only when the fiction clearly demands them.

Formula roll = 3d6 + Formula rating + relevant Attribute

A Formula grants permission to attempt a working, not equal ease for every result. Choose the minimum Difficulty from the ambition of the manifold. If another score such as Defense or Resistance also applies, use the higher number. A harmless, unopposed Subtle working simply happens when failure would add nothing.

Manifold	Minimum Difficulty	Examples
Subtle	9	Sense phasm, send a brief thought, move a small object, or create a minor impression.
Ordinary	12	Lift a person, conceal someone, close a wound, or question an artifact.
Major	15	Seal a passage, reshape substantial matter, purge serious disease, or alter memory.
Profound	18	Transform a living body, seize control of a mind, or rewrite identity.
Astonishing	21+	Affect a crowd, make a transformation permanent, or reconstruct a shattered intelligence.

Resisting a Working

A working imposed on a creature is rolled against the higher of its minimum Difficulty or that creature’s Resistance. The Narrator chooses the Attribute that best expresses the defense: Brawn against forced movement, Agility against a sudden enclosure, Vigor against bodily alteration, Intellect against deception, Spirit against fear or intrusion, or Presence against domination and loss of identity.

Resistance = 11 + relevant Attribute

Resistance is static; the defender does not roll. If a continuing effect allows escape, the affected creature may spend a short action on its turn to roll the relevant Attribute against the original working total.

Profound Workings

Transformation and domination are not ordinary extensions of healing or persuasion. They are always at least Profound, always maintained, and always allow an unwilling subject to attempt escape on each turn. Affecting additional subjects requires Overreach. Permanent transformation, perfect obedience, wholesale personality replacement, and similar violations require an Astonishing manifold and a story condition capable of supporting the change; a high roll alone is insufficient.

Ordinary Scope

Element	Ordinary rule
Action	A working is one short action. An elaborate, distant, or carefully concealed working may be long.
Reach	The user or one perceived target within 10 squares.
Duration	Immediate, or maintained for as long as the user remains conscious and attentive.
Maintenance	A hero may maintain one working. Beginning another maintained working ends the first.
Signature	Phasm is perceptible as an uncanny disturbance unless the fiction or a Talent conceals it.

Overreach

Before rolling, a phasm user may Overreach to gain a bonus die on the working or double one ordinary limit: reach, number of targets, or duration. After the working resolves, the user marks 1 Fatigue whether it succeeds or fails. Several desired increases require separate instances of Overreach and therefore separate Fatigue marks. A working cannot be Overreached beyond what the group can picture and adjudicate clearly.

Phasmic Attacks

A Formula that directly lashes, crushes, burns, or otherwise harms a target is an attack. Roll the working against the higher of Defense or its minimum Difficulty. A target may Parry only if the attack could plausibly be turned aside. On a hit, roll 1d6 and add the Formula roll’s Attribute. Protection applies normally. A decisive hit grants a bonus damage die as usual. The Formula grants the form of the attack; it does not create a separate combat system.

The Nine Formulae

These Formulae name permissions, not exhaustive menus. A proposed working belongs when its central change matches the Formula’s governing idea. If two Formulae could contribute, use the one doing the essential work; possessing both may justify a more ambitious result, but never adds their ratings together.

Awakening — Rouse, question, or command dormant artifacts, constructed minds, and ensouled devices.

Binding — Restrain movement, seal passages, suppress phasm, or hold an entity within a stated boundary.

Mending — Close wounds, purge poison or disease, and restore a living body toward its natural form.

Motion — Exert force without touch: lift, draw, repel, carry, or strike matter and creatures.

Shaping — Alter the form or behavior of nonliving matter and natural forces without creating substance from nothing.

Touch — Sense, send, or influence thought, emotion, memory, and dreams; domination is a Profound working.

Transformation — Alter a living body away from its natural form; every working of this Formula is at least Profound.

Veiling — Mislead perception, conceal a presence, project an image, or disguise the apparent nature of something.

Witness — Perceive phasm, distant places, hidden traces, possible futures, or impressions left upon objects and sites.

Limits of Phasm

A Formula cannot permanently solve a human relationship, erase a central character choice, or make another Skill irrelevant.

Mending aids living bodies; it does not restore the dead or remove the meaning of serious injury.

Touch can press, reveal, distort, or temporarily dominate a mind, but permanent conversion and perfect obedience are not ordinary workings.

Transformation describes a living form; it does not create permanent life or make biological consequences irrelevant.

Witness offers impressions and possibilities rather than an infallible transcript of the Narrator’s notes.

Creating permanent life, returning the dead, crossing vast distances instantly, or remaking a region requires a story event, not a high roll.

Phasmic Talents

Far Working (Any Phasmic Formula) — Treat the ordinary reach of your Phasmic Formulae as 20 squares.

Hidden Working (Any Phasmic Formula) — Your phasm has no obvious sensory signature unless another phasm user actively seeks it.

Lasting Working (Any Phasmic Formula) — One maintained working may remain without your attention, but it ends if you leave the scene or become unconscious.

Open Channel (Any Phasmic Formula) — You may maintain two workings at once.

Reflexive Ward (Any Phasmic Formula) — Once per round, use Binding as a reaction against a phasmic working that targets you or an adjacent ally.

Swift Working (Any Phasmic Formula) — Once per scene, compute a manifold that would require a long action as a short action.

Magister Talents

Burn Bright (Magister) — When you Overreach, take the Fatigue after your next turn instead of immediately.

Flesh Remembers (Magister) — Once per scene, remove 1 Fatigue mark from yourself after successfully using Mending on another creature.

Raw Emission (Magister) — Your damaging Phasmic Formulae roll 1d6H instead of 1d6.

Emissary Talents

Clear Audience (Emissary) — Once per scene, ask your Monitor one direct question about its works or mandate and receive an honest answer, though not necessarily a complete one.

Intercession (Emissary) — As a reaction, spend 1 Nerve to let an ally within 10 squares use your Spirit Resistance against one phasmic working.

Sign of Office (Emissary) — Beings and devices that recognize your Monitor know you as its Emissary and will hear you before choosing hostility.

Seventh Sun Codex
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