User talk:Vorpal

Orphaean Alchemists

"I don't understand why we take all this time," says the apprentice, grumbling while he stared balefully at the slowly spinning mass of ephemera that he was painstakingly slowly passing in and out of the bubble of Twilight. "-to do something there's already a spell for."
"Because," said the master, calmly shaping a single ingot- Perfect in every way- into a sextant, with bare hands and the patience of a saint. "-only this way does your work outlive you."

The Legacy Of Orpheus

A master artist loses his lover and descends into the underworld to retrieve her. It's a tale known everywhere that Greek myth proliferates.

Origins

Parentage: Moros

Nicknames: Orphans, Alchemists

Background: Classically appealing to those who would style themselves alchemists, Awakened smiths, chemists, mediums, and explorers all find something the Orphans have to offer.

Orders:

Appearance:

Doctrine

Prerequisites: Matter 2, Death 2, Expression 2

Initiation:

Organization:

Theory: The Legacy of Orpheus holds a number of pertinent lessons applicable to the understanding of matter in its truest states. Whether it be understanding that all objects are simply collections of particles loosely held together and thus easily seen through, or knowing the true nature of a material and using the Supernal Twilight to bring it closer to its truest state, Orphaean Alchemy can be applied to help all things- and adherents- to be seen as, and become, their truest selves.

Magic

Ruling Arcanum: Matter

Yantras: Observatories (+1); singing (+1, +2 if the song is a dirge or threnody); tools for chemistry (+2); clear skies (+1, +2 if stars, besides the sun, are visible to the naked eye); music venues (+1, +2 if a performance is occurring)

Suggested Oblations: Chemistry experiments, stargazing, scientific research, singing, songwriting

Concepts: Scientist, arrogant alchemist, historian, metallurgist, international financier, philanthropist, former astronaut.

Attainments

First: The Search For Eurydice

Prerequisites: Initiation
This Attainment allows the mage to see great distances and to look through solid objects. He simply wills light to interact with the world a bit differently, facilitating long-range perception or making objects transparent (to him). This spell has two main effects. The first is an increase in the character’s visual range, allowing him to see a number of miles equal to (Gnosis x 3). The character can terminate the effect at any time up to its duration factor, but while the effect is activated, the player suffers a –4 modifier to any sight-based Perception rolls to notice something in the character’s immediate area (hearing and scent are unaffected, of course, and the mage might use a Space spell to warn her if anyone approaches). While the Attainment doesn’t mitigate darkness by itself, the Alchemist can cast the Forces spell “Nightsight” and see for miles in the dark.
Optional: Matter 2
The second effect is similar to the Matter 2 spell “Steel Windows.” The character can look through any solid object he wishes. Unlike the Steel Windows spell, the mage is the only one who can see through the object.

Second: Persephone's Bargain

Prerequisites: Matter 4, Expression 3
Grasping another truth of the connections between substances and essences, the Alchemist learns to realign the starstuff in Fallen materials to imbue their Patterns with Perfection. It's a pale imitation of what true Perfected materials can be- this change lasts only so long as the spell, after all- but even such changes can be made to last for quite some time.
This attainment works much as Hone the Perfected Form, and affects a single continuous piece of substance that fits within the spell’s Scale factor. The effect converts one of the following metals to its Perfected form while the spell persists: gold into Orichalcum, silver into Lunargent, mercury into Hermium, copper into Brontium, tin into Kassiterum, lead into Apeiron, and iron or steel into Siderite. As well, perfected models exist for acids, flame, gemstones, glass (called Adamant once perfected), leather, mirrors, stone, water (called Alhkahest after undergoing this procedure), and wood. Further details on these substances are available on pages 60-63 in Signs of sorcery.
Optional: Death 3
Not all Alchemists are satisfied with the simple, temporary effects of Cosmic Kiln. Provided a location of sufficient resonance with the appropriate Supernal realm, the Alchemist can use this Attainment to create an area they call "arils", after the seeds Persephone ate that doomed her to the Underworld- an isolated area suffused with Twilight used to forge Perfected materials.
This effect is, in essence, identical to the Space spell Co-Location, though instead of a second location, it connects to an empty zone of Twilight. Items passed into and out of this space count each trip as one of those required to permanently transmute the item into its Perfected state. All other requirements and restrictions on this conversion are the same, however, including the required "resting" time between every 10 trips. The Alchemists say this resting period is meant to represent Persephone's time in the land of the living, during which her Underworld Bargain cannot be leveraged.

Third: Hades' Treasuries

Prerequisites: Matter 4, Expression 4
Cost: 1 Mana The Alchemist gains insight into the nature of matter and energy, and its fundamental form as the stuff of the universe, no matter what state it is currently in. The mage can touch a wall and make it dissolve in a splash of water, or solidify a vat of acid into granite. He cannot, however, change substances into gas (or vice versa). The only types of matter he can involve are solids and liquids. All transmutations are permanent, and the mage cannot shape matter using this Attainment. For instance, he might change water into stone, stopping a flood in its tracks, but he couldn’t control the shape the requisite stone would take- nor, indeed, prevent the ensuing avalance as the stones created from droplets and splashes collapsed. The table below can be used as a rule of thumb. This Attainment cannot be used to affect an object with a Size rating greater than 5, but the character can break apart a larger object over time. The mage should be wary, of course, of destroying objects that support others (load-bearing walls and the like), or of trying to transmute a dense object into sand in an enclosed space. When transmuting, the player states the type of matter he wishes the targeted material to become. If the object’s Durability is less than the corresponding durability of the destination material on the chart above, it becomes an amount of matter equal to the intensity in Size. If the Durability is equal to or greater than the intensity listed for the destination material, the object is Size 1 (equal) or Size 0 (greater). The mage must touch the matter to affect it.
Optional: Death 3
Souls are not the only things one can bring back from the realms of the dead. This truth, learned by the Alchemist, allows them to pull forth the shades of objects to be used as needed. These objects function as if created by Shadow Crafting, with a Durability/armor/weapon rating/equipment bonus of 2, as per the object created.

Fourth: The Gifts of Apollo

Prerequisites: Matter 4, Expression 4
This Attainment is much the same as Everything is Stardust, except that many of the restrictions are removed. The character can affect and create gases, for instance. This means that the character can cause bullets to evaporate harmlessly by changing them into air, or cause enemies to sink into the floor by changing wooden planks into mud. The range on this Attainment is sensory (which, combined with the Celestial Telescope Attainment, makes the few Astral Chemists of this rank fearsome indeed), and the amount of gas that can be shaped is determined by the chart below. The system for this Attainment is the same as for the previous one.
Optional: Death 4
As Apollo's light illuminates the gifts he bestows, so, too, does that light cast shadows in their absence- and the Orpheaens know how to reduce their enemies to precisely that. This attainment functions as Enervation, but rather than paralyzing limbs, it dissolves part of the affected target into their shadow, flattening them against whatever surface it currently resides against, inflicting an Arm Wrack or Leg Wrack tilt. Once the Alchemist reaches Death 5, or if the Alchemist takes the full ritual time to cast it, this can instead inflict Immobilized, completely reducing the victim into their shadow until the effect wears off- a terrifying, but harmless, experience, to be sure.

Fifth: Treasures Of The Stars

Prerequisite: Matter 5, Expression 5
The final attainment of the Alchemists is simple- having mastered the tenets and studies of matter and forces, they learn the secrets of not just creating Perfected materials based on Fallen ones, but on smelting alloys from those Perfected materials.
This attainment can be used as the Matter 4 spells Forge Sophis/Thaumium/Dumanium, with a single improvement- once Starforge is applied, the base materials need no longer be kept Perfected. The new alloy is itself Perfected- any spells used to Perfect its components end with the completion of the Attainment's application. This effect is Lasting.
Optional: Death 5 In the ultimate emulation of the Legacy's founder, the Alchemist learns to open an Iris straight into the Underworld to undertake her own pilgrimage to the world of the dead. This functions precisely as Create Avernian Gate. If the full ritual time is taken to cast this attainment, the Iris may open onto any part of the Underworld to which the Alchemist has been before.