Mage/Theme/Legacies/Oźwiena's Web

Oźwiena’s Web

You think you’re safe in your home, seeing what you want to see, but you’re missing the point. You choose what to see, but we choose what you believe.

A Rumor Flies on Wings

Oźwiena’s Web as a legacy is a new legacy that rose out of the Guardians of the Veil in response to the rise of the information age, under the influence of its members who were also affiliated with the FSB’s SIGINT and misinformation operations. It was a recognition of the power of memetic warfare and information hazards in the course of modern events.

The Web quickly became a way of managing Labyrinths in areas or situations where boots on the ground were undesired, risky, or inconvenient. Influencing the viewpoints of key persons remotely and with precision. The result was an approach that became frequently more effective than a direct approach in situations where time wasn’t of the essence.

Origins

Parentage: Obrimos, Guardians of the Veil

Background: Most members of Oźwiena’s Web were initially intelligence agents, but in modern days most are internet influencers of one form or another. Instagram celebrities, popular YouTubers, famous bloggers, and high profile Twitch streamers have all found their way to the Legacy. Fashion designers, news reporters, and talk show hosts have also become members over the years.

Appearances: The Threads of Oźwiena’s Web tend to dress in accordance with need, situation, and their test, but mostly keep up with current trends in fashion and are often caught in the latest styles. Unless, of course, the situation calls for something else.

Doctrine

Prerequisites: Mind 2, Fate 2, Computers 2, two dots in one of the following skills: Politics, Expression, Persuasion, Socialize, Streetwise, Subterfuge

Initiation: Prospective members of Oźwiena’s Web are usually put through a series of tests before even being informed of the Legacy’s existence. This usually involves being told or allowed to discover various secrets about others, and then being monitored to ensure that they exercise judgement in which things they keep to themselves and which they share, and to what end. When the Legacy is revealed to them they’re asked to draw certain bits of gossip without the use of magic to do it.

Organization: Oźwiena’s Web is both a new Legacy and a small one. Due to the tendency for its members to make heavy use of the internet and social media, they often stay well connected and even maintain encrypted chat rooms where members can stay in touch. Beyond that, they have no rigid structure or hierarchy, with each operating at their own discretion.

Theory: Information longs to be free, but some of it needs help and some of it should never see the light of day. By working to ensure others believe what they want them to believe, or dismiss what they want them to dismiss, the Echoes of Oźwiena can manipulate that flow of information.

Magic

Ruling Arcanum: Mind

Yantras: Gossiping (+1), revealing a secret (+1, +2 if personal), telling a lie (+1), participating in social media (+1, +2 if revealing something personal without filters)

Oblations: Learning or revealing a secret; engaging in gossip; convincing someone to believe a lie; following social media.

Attainments

First: Memetic Ampullate

Prerequisites: Initiation

It’s well known that words have power, and runes have been used in spellcasting for longer than any of the Orders can remember. Learning to encode those runes digitally is a new trick, and one that the Threads of Oźwiena’s Web guard so jealously that they write the process on their souls.

Initiation into Oźwiena’s Web allows for the use of a special kind of Basilisk Yantra, encoded into digital media, whether hidden in the pattern of words on a page or concealed in an image through the use of steganography. This provides the usual benefits of the Basilisk Yantra that can be used as normally with spells, or with Attainments from the Legacy. It works only in a digital format, but can be copied via transmission to more than one person at a time. Instead of two free levels of Duration, it receives two free levels of Scale, and instead of the +2 casting bonus from a runic yantra, it instead allows the few Attainments of this Legacy that don’t already have Advanced Duration to be given that benefit.

Optional: Prime 1

It takes a liar to spot a liar, and a Thread of Oźwiena’s Web makes a study of the deceptions in the world around her. By taking a scene to cast she can replicate the effects of the Pierce Deception spell, with Reach assigned to Advanced Duration.

Second: Algorithmic Flagelliform

Prerequisites: Mind 2, Computers 3

Setting the right tone is necessary for the best result. An opponent who is inclined to take pity might lower their guard. An angry one might miss an important detail, or let something slip. And one who loves her might tell her anything she wants. This ensures their enemies feel what she needs them to be feeling so that she might do her work. Like with the spell Emotional Urging, this spell opens or closes Doors, with Reach assigned to Instant casting.

Optional: Prime 2

Sometimes it’s just as powerful to have someone believe a Thread when she’s telling the truth as it is for them to believe her lies. The truth, after all, can be a powerful weapon. When the Thread tells the plain truth, others listen. This Attainment works like the Prime spell Words of Truth, with Reach assigned to Instant casting and Advanced Duration, but without the risk of causing Breaking Points in those who try to deny her.

Third: Viral Piriform

Prerequisites: Mind 3, two dots in a second Skill among the initiation Skill list

Whether truth or lies, instilling in someone a conviction in the merit of someone offering words leads the mind to trick them into believing the words that follow, too. By making sure someone views her as a valued source, an Echo also ensures their audience gives weight to her words. This works like the Mind spell First Impressions, with Reach assigned to Instant Casting and Advanced Duration.

Optional: Prime 3

When spreading gossip and sharing secrets, it’s important to be sure nobody knows where the rumors started. By severing the impressions of her own soul that would be left upon her web of lies, the Thread can be sure none can follow her back to its center. This removes all traces of Awakened interference from an object, like the Prime 3 spell Cleanse Pattern, with reach assigned to Instant Casting.

Fourth: Cryptographic Aggregate

Prerequisites: Mind 4, Computers 4

Spreading rumor becomes easier when a Thread can glean secrets without convincing someone to reveal them. By simply reaching into someone’s mind and removing the information that she wants, she can arm herself with all the knowledge she could need. She does this in a way similar to the Read the Depths spell, with Reach assigned to Instant Casting and Advanced Duration.

Optional: Prime 4

Having the tools of one’s trade on hand is vital to success, and things are no different for a Thread of Oźwiena’s Web. When she’s in need of a communication device she can simply make what she needs. This works like the Prime spell Platonic Device, with Reach assigned to Instant Casting, Advanced Duration, and a Complex Advice. This can ‘’only’’ be used to create a communications device such as a laptop or smartphone, with all Potency assigned to Equipment Bonus and the Potentia taken directly from the Thread’s pool for each roll made with it. If she has Forces 3, the object does not appear to be magical.

Fifth: Epistemic Aciniform

Prerequisites: Mind 5, two dots in a third Skill among the initiation Skill list

Being the smartest person in the room means always having the advantage, and quick adaptation can ensure that happens. She does this by copying the effects of the Enhance Skill spell, with Reach assigned to Instant Casting and exceeding normal maximums.

Optional: Prime 5

Recording incriminating evidence for later is a hallmark of the rumormonger. Blackmail is much more effective when you can back it up with proof, and hearsay becomes fact with the right evidence. When an Echo takes a photograph or records video, she can record magical signatures at the same time. This works in the same way as the Prime spell Camera Obscura, with Reach assigned to Instant Casting, Advanced Duration, and making the results Lasting if she spends 1 Potentia when making the recording.