Nightcats:Sorcery
Sorcery of Jhelum
“Those who speak lightly of the Secret Fire do not speak of it long.”
Sorcery in Jhelum is not a list of spells, nor a polite mystery copied from orderly books. It is a dangerous practice of bargains, rites, sacrifices, dreams, idols, names, and old powers that were never meant to answer human need. Those who practice it do not memorize fixed effects. They learn how to approach the Secret Fire, how to force it into a shape they can survive, and how to endure the price of doing so.
The Secret Fire can wound, bind, reveal, conceal, transform, summon, and corrupt. It can also leave marks that do not fade, draw notice from things best left sleeping, and strip away memory, vitality, or pieces of the self. No one comes to it cleanly, and no one leaves it unchanged.
The Sorcerer Career
Any character who takes the Sorcerer career must choose a Path at character creation. A Path is not merely a style or visual theme. It is the way the sorcerer has learned to make the Secret Fire answer. It determines what kinds of workings come naturally, what kinds come badly, and what kinds may be all but impossible without terrible effort.
A sorcerer may attempt many things, but not every sorcerer should attempt every kind of working. Two sorcerers may seek the same end and arrive there by utterly different means. One cuts flesh and feeds blood into a bowl. Another burns dream-incense and breathes in measured rhythm until waking sight loosens. Another whispers into an idol’s carved ear. Another buries a knotted cord under a tree and lets misfortune ripen.
The Secret Fire
In rules terms, sorcery is powered by Secret Fire. This is the same resource BoL calls Arcane Power, but in Jhelum it is better understood as a dangerous inner reserve spent to force workings into the world.
A character with the Sorcerer career begins play with Secret Fire equal to 10 + Sorcerer rank. When Secret Fire is spent, it is gone until recovered.
Recovering Secret Fire
The Secret Fire returns slowly and according to rhythm.
- Secret Fire spent on Cantrips returns at both noon and midnight
- Secret Fire spent on First Magnitude workings returns at either noon or midnight; each sorcerer chooses one and keeps it for life
- Secret Fire spent on Second and Third Magnitude workings returns at a rate of 4 points per lunar month, on the phase to which the sorcerer has bound themselves
Whenever a sorcerer performs a Third Magnitude working, they permanently lose 1 point of Secret Fire. At the GM’s discretion, this loss may instead reduce an appropriate Attribute, representing aging, bodily distortion, spiritual exhaustion, or some other lasting diminishment.
The Paths of the Secret Fire
Sorcery in Jhelum is fragmented, secretive, contradictory, and often regional. Most practitioners know only one Path well enough to survive it.
The Blood Path
The Blood Path works through injury, sacrifice, opened flesh, spilled life, and the terrible intimacy of pain. It is strong in Harm and Control, and weak at subtle concealment, gentle revelation, or delicate transformation. Blood sorcerers compel through pain, destroy through sacrifice, and master by making the Fire feed on living things.
The Dream Path
The Dream Path works through incense, altered breath, trance, sleep, song, rhythm, memory, and states of mind that are not wholly waking. It is strong in Conceal and Reveal, and weak at direct physical destruction or immediate material transformation. Dream sorcerers cloud minds, send visions, hide truths, distort perception, and draw out what lies buried beneath waking thought.
The Idol Path
The Idol Path works by placing force into form. It binds power into vessels, rings, masks, blades, idols, jars, painted symbols, sacred objects, and crafted bodies. It is strong in Summon or Bind and Transform, and weak at quick improvisation, sudden violence without preparation, or purely mental workings detached from an object or vessel. Idol sorcerers house, preserve, anchor, enchant, imprison, and shape.
The Curse Path
The Curse Path works through names, tokens, hidden rites, burial, contamination, repetition, patience, doom, and things that ripen over time. It is strong in Harm and Transform, and weak at sudden revelation, quick concealment, or any working that must happen at once. Curse sorcerers begin processes that worsen, spread, endure, and finish in their own time.
Paths and Domains
Each Path is aligned with two Domains of Effect. These are the Domains the sorcerer truly understands.
| Path | Favored Domains | Nature of Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Path | Harm, Control | Force, pain, sacrifice, domination |
| Dream Path | Conceal, Reveal | Vision, trance, illusion, perception |
| Idol Path | Summon or Bind, Transform | Vessels, objects, housing power |
| Curse Path | Harm, Transform | Slow ruin, decay, inevitability |
Favored Domains
When a sorcerer works within one of their Path’s Favored Domains, choose one benefit:
- Reduce the Secret Fire cost by 1 (minimum 1), or
- Gain +1 to the Task Roll
Choose each time a working is cast.
Strained Domains
A sorcerer may attempt a working outside their Path’s Favored Domains, but such workings are unnatural to their practice. If a sorcerer attempts a Domain outside their Path, the GM should either increase the working’s Magnitude by one step or add one additional Cost from the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table. If the effect strongly contradicts the Path, the GM may rule it impossible without rare lore, special training, or major story justification.
Path Expression
The Domain describes what is being done. The Path describes how it is done.
A Blood Path sorcerer using Control binds through pain, blood, and terror. An Idol Path sorcerer attempting Harm outside their Path likely does so by means of a prepared vessel, a spirit-bound blade, or a set idol rather than by flinging raw force across a room. A Curse Path sorcerer does not act like a Dream Path sorcerer merely because both may wish the same enemy ruined. One works by doom ripening over days. The other works by dream, vision, and mental distortion.
If the Path does not clearly explain how the effect happens, the GM should raise the Magnitude, add Costs, or refuse the working.
What Sorcery Can Do
All workings fall into six broad Domains of Effect. These are not spell lists. They are categories of intent. The player declares what the sorcerer wants to accomplish. The GM decides which Domain applies, what Magnitude is required, how long the effect lasts, and what the Fire demands in return.
Harm
Harm is sorcery that wounds, withers, burns, weakens, breaks, sickens, rots, ruins, or destroys. It includes injury to flesh, blight on crops, wasting disease, destructive force, spoiling, breaking, and curses that bring pain or death. Blood and Curse sorcerers excel here. Dream and Idol sorcerers can attempt it, but usually only indirectly or with greater cost.
| Magnitude | Harm Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Cause a sting of pain, spoil food or drink, crack a fragile object, extinguish a candle, blister skin, sour milk, curdle oil |
| First | Inflict a real wound, strike with fire or force, blight a small patch of field, shatter a door, bring fever, weaken a target in a scene |
| Second | Cripple several people, level part of a structure, spread a serious wasting affliction, lay a powerful blight, call a destructive storm over a small area |
| Third | Plague a district, lay famine on a region, destroy major structures, curse a bloodline with sickness or death, unleash catastrophic fire, storm, or ruin |
Control
Control is sorcery that restrains, compels, dominates, commands, paralyzes, terrifies, enthralls, or enforces obedience. It includes bodily restraint, pressure on the will, spirit-command, taboo, and all manner of bindings laid upon people, creatures, or lesser powers. Blood sorcerers excel here. Others may reach for it, but usually by stranger routes and at greater cost.
| Magnitude | Control Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Cause hesitation, force a dropped object, induce a brief pause, make a target flinch, stammer, or recoil |
| First | Bind a person briefly, compel a simple act, send fear into a target, command a weak spirit, prevent movement for a few moments |
| Second | Enthrall a mortal mind, enforce obedience, imprison a spirit in a vessel, seal a door or chamber against use, bind a dangerous haunting |
| Third | Create long-term thralls, geas a household or bloodline, seal a powerful entity away, lay binding law upon a temple, tomb, or district |
Conceal
Conceal is sorcery that hides, veils, blurs, masks, misdirects, distracts, silences, or causes others not to notice. It includes illusions, veils, muffling, hidden roads, disguised appearances, and the bending of attention or memory away from what is there. Dream sorcerers excel here. Others use it poorly and usually by awkward or indirect means.
| Magnitude | Conceal Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Dim a light, blur a sound, distract the eye, make a small object easy to overlook |
| First | Pass unnoticed, hide a person or thing from casual notice, create a convincing single illusion, muffle speech, blur memory of a moment |
| Second | Veil a room or group, erase or distort recollection, make a place difficult to find, sustain a false appearance through a scene or a night |
| Third | Hide a shrine, road, tomb, or household for years, erase a truth from common memory, shroud a district in sustained obscurity or false appearance |
Reveal
Reveal is sorcery that uncovers, sees, hears, interprets, remembers, locates, or forces hidden truths into knowledge. It includes omen-reading, dream-sight, speaking with the dead, detecting spirits, identifying curses, and witnessing distant or recent events. Dream sorcerers excel here. Other Paths may reach for it through sacrifice, idols, or curse-roots, but with more strain.
| Magnitude | Reveal Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Sense nearby sorcery, feel a presence, receive a fleeting omen, know whether something is tainted |
| First | See recent events in a place, locate a nearby person or object, know whether someone lies, identify a curse, haunting, or spirit |
| Second | Witness distant events, read dreams clearly, speak to the dead or a bound spirit, uncover hidden paths, know the history of a place or object |
| Third | See across kingdoms, pierce ancient concealments, learn truths buried by kings or gods, witness the deep past, expose what has been hidden for generations |
Transform
Transform is sorcery that alters shape, quality, function, nature, or enduring condition. It includes enchantment of objects, alteration of flesh, hardening, softening, corruption, strengthening, reshaping, animation, and all manner of changing what a thing is or does. Idol and Curse sorcerers excel here. Blood may transform flesh violently; Dream may transform perception more easily than matter.
| Magnitude | Transform Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Change smell, taste, warmth, color, or another minor quality |
| First | Harden skin, alter appearance, sour wine, warp a simple object, strengthen or diminish a trait briefly |
| Second | Reshape a body in a serious way, animate an object, alter a weapon or idol, change the lasting nature of a crafted thing, twist flesh into beastlike form |
| Third | Create permanent monstrous transformation, corrupt a sacred thing, alter the nature of a place, remake flesh or matter on a grand scale |
Summon or Bind
Summon or Bind is sorcery that calls, houses, imprisons, bargains with, directs, wards against, or anchors spirits, demons, ancestors, and other unseen powers. This Domain is feared throughout Jhelum, and rightly so. To summon is not to command. To bind is not to own. Success often means only that one danger has been exchanged for another. Idol sorcerers excel here. Others can meddle, but rarely with the same confidence or stability.
| Magnitude | Summon or Bind Examples |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Stir a nearby presence, ward off a weak unseen thing for a moment, receive a whisper, attract a minor spirit |
| First | Call a minor spirit, bind a weak presence into a token, ward a doorway, send a messenger-spirit, compel a small local power |
| Second | Summon a dangerous spirit or demon, bind an entity into an idol, trap a haunting thing, command an otherworldly servant for a time |
| Third | Call a great demon, imprison something ancient, bind a temple or tomb to a housed power, establish a lasting pact with a terrible force |
What Sorcery Cannot Do Easily
Sorcery in Jhelum is broad, but it is neither effortless nor benign. As a rule, sorcery does not heal living wounds cleanly. It may preserve life briefly, shift hurt from one body to another, harden flesh unnaturally, or close wounds in ugly ways, but true healing belongs to herbs, prayer, treatment, and time.
Sorcery does not excuse preparation. Even a quick working has shape, method, and cost. It does not come free of consequence, because every working alters something. It also does not ignore the Path. If the Path does not support the effect, the GM should raise its Magnitude, add Costs, or refuse it.
Magnitude and Difficulty
The greater the working, the more the world resists.
| Magnitude | Description | Target Number |
|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | Petty, fleeting, or slight effects | Automatic or trivial |
| First | Serious workings affecting a person, object, or scene | 9 |
| Second | Major workings beyond what one person could normally achieve | 12 |
| Third | Great desecrations that alter lives, places, bloodlines, or communities | 15 |
A simple rule helps when judging Magnitude. If an ordinary person, with tools, labor, and time, could achieve something roughly similar, it is probably First Magnitude. If not, but the scale remains limited, it is probably Second Magnitude. If it changes a place, lineage, community, or sacred order of things, it is probably Third Magnitude.
Time and Performance
Sorcery is not usually quick. Even a simple working requires words, gestures, breath, offerings, focus, or some other act by which the sorcerer gives shape to the Secret Fire. The greater the working, the longer this usually takes.
| Magnitude | Typical Time |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | A moment or two |
| First | One round to several minutes |
| Second | Several minutes to several hours |
| Third | Several hours to days |
These are guidelines, not iron laws. A working done in haste is harder, dirtier, and more dangerous. A working performed with patience, preparation, and proper ritual may be steadier and easier to control.
Fast Workings
A sorcerer may attempt a working more quickly than usual, but doing so invites strain. If a sorcerer tries to compress the time of a working, the GM should apply one or more of the following:
- Increase the Magnitude by one step
- Add one additional Cost
- Apply -1 to the Task Roll
- Rule that the working cannot be hurried at all
As a rule of thumb, only Cantrips and many First Magnitude workings are suitable for use in the middle of action scenes.
Long Workings
Many Second and nearly all Third Magnitude workings are rituals, not combat actions. They may require repeated chanting, fasting, incense, a fixed place, assistants, celestial timing, blood sacrifice, preparation of a vessel, or the gathering of names, tokens, or rare ingredients. In such cases, the time required is part of the working’s Cost.
Path and Time
Each Path tends toward a different rhythm of sorcery.
| Path | Usual Rhythm |
|---|---|
| Blood Path | Often immediate or near-immediate, but violent and obvious |
| Dream Path | Usually takes at least a few moments of trance, breath, smoke, chant, or altered perception |
| Idol Path | Rarely quick; vessels and prepared objects favor patient ritual |
| Curse Path | Slowest of all; many curses ripen over hours, days, or longer |
A Blood sorcerer can often work quickly, but always at a visible price. A Dream sorcerer can work within a scene, though usually only with incense, whispered words, or a trance-like moment. An Idol sorcerer is most effective when prepared. A Curse sorcerer is least suited to instant sorcery, because what they begin tends to unfold rather than explode.
Secret Fire Costs
Use the following as the standard costs of sorcery:
| Magnitude | Secret Fire Cost |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | 1 or 2 |
| First | 5 |
| Second | 10 |
| Third | 15 |
These are the starting costs before Favored Domain benefits or other modifiers.
Sorcery cast while wearing armor is more difficult. Increase the Secret Fire cost by:
- +1 for Light Armor
- +2 for Medium Armor
- +3 for Heavy Armor
Cantrips usually need no roll unless they directly affect a sentient target or circumstances make them difficult.
Costs and Conditions
No working is free. Before a sorcerer rolls, the GM sets one or more Costs using the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table. These are not decorative details. They are the actual conditions under which the Fire will answer.
| Magnitude | Typical Cost |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Usually none, or one slight condition |
| First | 1 meaningful Cost |
| Second | 2 Costs |
| Third | 3 or more Costs |
The player may suggest Costs appropriate to their Path, but the GM decides what the working requires.
Default Mechanical Benchmarks
Sorcery in Jhelum is described freely, but resolved by fixed benchmarks. A player may describe a working however they like, but its actual game effect should use the default values below unless the GM has a strong reason to rule otherwise. This keeps sorcery flexible in fiction while consistent in play.
Harm Benchmarks
If a working is meant to directly injure, weaken, or destroy, use these defaults.
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Causes 1 point of damage, or a momentary painful distraction with no lasting injury |
| First | Causes 1d6 damage |
| Second | Causes 2d6 damage or 1d6 damage to everyone in a small area |
| Third | Causes 3d6 damage or 2d6 damage across a large area, or inflicts a devastating blight, plague, or ruinous curse at the GM’s discretion |
If the working is subtle rather than explosive, the GM may trade raw damage for weakness, fear, nausea, blindness, lingering pain, or another fitting effect.
Ongoing Harm
If a Harm working continues over time rather than striking all at once, First Magnitude ongoing harm usually lasts for 3 rounds, Second Magnitude ongoing harm usually lasts for a scene or one day, and Third Magnitude ongoing harm may last for days, weeks, or longer. Ongoing harm usually requires one of three things: the sorcerer must maintain it, the target must remain inside the effect, or the working must be anchored to a vessel, curse, or condition. As a rule, direct combat damage should usually happen once, not every round forever.
Control Benchmarks
If a working restrains, compels, terrifies, enthralls, or dominates, use these defaults.
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | A brief hesitation, flinch, stumble, or dropped item |
| First | A target is hindered, frightened, or briefly restrained for 1d3 rounds |
| Second | A target is fully restrained, enthralled, or compelled for one scene or until the sorcerer’s concentration breaks |
| Third | A target, group, household, or bound being is controlled by a lasting geas, enthrallment, or binding that endures until broken |
Not all Control is equal. A brief distraction, pause, or scare is usually Cantrip or First. Binding limbs, freezing someone in place, or forcing a simple act is usually First. Enthralling a mind for the rest of a scene is usually Second. Long-term domination, taboo, geas, or binding loyalty belongs to Third.
Maintaining Control
Brief control does not require maintenance. Scene-length control usually requires either concentration from the sorcerer or a visible ongoing bond such as a vessel, seal, chant, curse, or spirit-tie. Long-term control never relies on concentration alone. It must be anchored by geas, curse, idol, oath, spirit-binding, or some other lasting structure.
If a sorcerer wants to dominate a mind in combat and continue issuing commands round after round, that is usually Second Magnitude and requires concentration. If they want the victim to remain obedient after the sorcerer leaves, that is usually Third Magnitude.
Conceal Benchmarks
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Brief distraction, dimming, muffling, or making a small thing easy to overlook |
| First | Hide one person or object from casual notice, create a single convincing illusion, or muffle sound in a small area for one scene |
| Second | Veil a room, group, or route; distort memory; sustain a major illusion for one scene or one night |
| Third | Hide a shrine, tomb, household, district, or truth for a long duration: weeks, years, or longer |
Reveal Benchmarks
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Sense nearby sorcery, spirits, taint, or omen |
| First | Learn a recent truth, locate a nearby target, identify a curse, or glimpse recent events in a place |
| Second | Witness distant events, question the dead, read dreams clearly, or uncover a hidden path, history, or influence |
| Third | Pierce ancient concealment, learn truths buried across generations, or see across vast distance or deep time |
Reveal workings should usually provide useful but not perfect information unless the GM wants the answer to be absolute.
Transform Benchmarks
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Alter a minor quality: taste, smell, color, warmth, texture |
| First | Alter appearance, toughen skin, warp a simple object, strengthen or weaken one trait for one scene |
| Second | Reshape flesh, animate an object, alter a weapon or idol, or impose a serious bodily change for one scene or longer |
| Third | Permanent transformation of body, object, bloodline, or place |
Summon or Bind Benchmarks
| Magnitude | Default Effect |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Stir or ward off a minor presence for a moment |
| First | Call a weak spirit, ward a doorway, bind a small presence into a token, or send a messenger-spirit |
| Second | Summon a dangerous entity, trap a haunting, bind a force into an idol, or command a spirit-servant for one scene or one task |
| Third | Call a great being, imprison something ancient, establish a lasting pact, or bind a temple, tomb, or place |
A summoned being is not automatically loyal forever. First Magnitude summonings usually perform one simple task. Second Magnitude summonings usually serve for one scene or one clearly defined task. Third Magnitude summonings create a lasting relationship, pact, prison, or obligation rather than a simple temporary servant.
Duration Benchmarks
When no better duration is obvious, use this table.
| Magnitude | Typical Duration |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | A moment, one action, or a few breaths |
| First | 1d3 rounds, one scene, or up to an hour |
| Second | One scene, one night, or one day |
| Third | Days, months, years, or until specifically broken |
The GM should choose the shortest duration that still fits the fiction unless the sorcerer pays heavily in Cost, time, or consequence.
Maintenance
Some workings must be maintained. Others do not.
| Type of Working | Maintenance |
|---|---|
| Instant harm | No maintenance |
| Brief restraint or fear | No maintenance |
| Ongoing damage, scene-length enthrallment, sustained illusion | Usually requires concentration or a fixed anchor |
| Long-term curse, geas, vessel-binding, permanent transformation | No concentration, but must be anchored by ritual structure |
If a sorcerer is maintaining a working, they may take no other sorcery action unless the GM rules otherwise.
Resistance
For workings that directly affect a person’s mind, will, or perceptions, the target’s Mind should modify the difficulty, as in BoL. A strong-minded victim is harder to enthrall, deceive, dominate, spiritually break, or probe.
This matters most for:
- Control
- Conceal that alters perception
- Reveal that probes thought or memory
Consequences
Sorcery is never clean. If a working fails, a consequence follows. If a working succeeds at Second or Third Magnitude, a consequence may still follow. A Third Magnitude working always causes a consequence, even on success.
Use the appropriate table:
- Minor Consequences for Cantrips and First Magnitude workings
- Major Consequences for Second Magnitude workings
- Catastrophic Consequences for Third Magnitude workings
The GM may choose an entry or roll.
The Mark of the Fire
Some consequences inflict a Mark of the Fire. A Mark is not spent. It is endured. It measures how much the Secret Fire has noticed the sorcerer, altered them, or laid some claim upon them.
The more Marks a sorcerer bears, the less ordinary they seem. Spirits take notice. Priests grow wary. Sleep becomes strange. Reflections worsen. The line between practitioner and practiced-upon thins. There are stories of such people, but they are not told as warnings so much as recognition.
Working Sorcery at the Table
When a sorcerer attempts a working, use this order:
- The player states what they want the working to do
- The player identifies the most fitting Domain
- The GM judges whether the Path supports that Domain naturally or only with strain
- The GM sets the Magnitude and Target Number
- The GM sets one or more Costs from the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table
- The GM determines the time required
- The sorcerer pays the Secret Fire cost
- The sorcerer rolls
- If needed, the GM applies a consequence from the appropriate consequence table
Practical Examples
A Blood Path sorcerer wants to strike down a guard across a courtyard by calling the man’s blood to boil. This is Harm, which is a Favored Domain, so the sorcerer may gain +1 to the roll or reduce the Secret Fire cost by 1. Because the effect is direct, immediate, and aimed at a single victim, it is usually First Magnitude at TN 9, with a default effect of 1d6 damage. If the sorcerer wants the victim to continue burning from within over several rounds, the GM may keep it at First but require concentration and apply the damage once with lingering weakness, or raise it to Second for broader or sustained injury.
A Blood Path sorcerer who wants to seize a foe’s mind and make him obey is working in Control, also Favored. If the goal is merely to make the victim freeze, kneel, flee, or drop his weapon, that is usually First Magnitude and lasts 1d3 rounds. If the goal is to command him through the rest of the scene, that is usually Second Magnitude, lasts one scene, and normally requires concentration or an ongoing visible bond. If the sorcerer means to turn the victim into a loyal servant after the scene ends, that belongs to Third Magnitude and must be anchored by curse, oath, spirit-binding, geas, or some other lasting structure.
A Dream Path sorcerer wants that same guard removed, but not by force. She breathes incense over a coal-bowl and sends a vision of divine judgment into his mind. If the goal is to make him recoil, panic, or flee, the GM may treat it as Control outside her Favored Domains, which likely raises the Magnitude or adds a Cost. If instead the vision clouds his perception, causes him not to see her, or makes him misread what is happening around him, the working may fall under Conceal and become far easier for her.
An Idol Path sorcerer wants to ward a merchant’s house against a haunting by fixing the spirit into a painted mask hung over the courtyard gate. This is Summon or Bind, a Favored Domain. If the spirit is minor and the task is limited, the working may be First Magnitude. If the haunting is dangerous or the ward must endure, Second Magnitude is more likely.
A Curse Path sorcerer wants revenge on a tax collector. He buries a knotted cord, the man’s true name, and a shred from his robe beneath a tamarind tree. Over the next days the victim weakens, quarrels with his household, and begins coughing blood. This is Harm through the Curse Path and may be First or Second Magnitude depending on severity. Because the effect unfolds over time, it is likely anchored rather than maintained by concentration.
A Good Rule for the GM
When in doubt, decide the working by answering three questions:
- Is it instant, scene-long, or lasting?
- Is it narrow, serious, or overwhelming?
- Does it need concentration, or is it anchored in ritual?
Those answers usually tell you what you need to know. Narrow and instant effects are usually First Magnitude. Serious scene-long effects are usually Second. Lasting effects anchored in curse, vessel, or rite are usually Third.
A Final Truth
Sorcery can do what steel cannot. It can reveal what eyes cannot. It can destroy what law cannot touch. It can also stain the hand that uses it, draw attention that cannot be escaped, and open doors that should have remained closed.
The Secret Fire does not care why it is invoked.
It only cares that it has been fed.