By calculating the positions of the stars and planets at the moment of a person’s birth—or Embrace—the ritualist can derive simple information about that person.

Level: 1

Effect: Each success on the casting roll provides the ritualist with one basic fact about the target: for example, Nature, great aptitudes (e.g. Trait 3+), or their greatest tragedy or victory in a general sense. This information is likely to be couched in metaphor and will not provide specific details (such as a clear location or actual names of those involved).

The ritualist may indicate they are focusing on a specific fact, in which case the first success will find that. If they do not or extra successes are achieved, the Storytellers will select which facts are discovered.

Duration: N/A

Cost/Limitation: While the ritual does not require the exact minute or the precise square foot of the world, it does require more than the day and country; if the ritualist does not use the correct details, the ritual will still appear to work but the answers will be flawed.

Test: Mental + Occult

Possible Group Benefits:

• Confirmation of Calculations: the ritualist gains some greater clarity about the first fact they deduce (can be taken multiple times, applying to subsequent facts).

• Communal Support: if the ritualist suffers a Bestial Failure it counts as an ordinary failure.

The ritualist calls on ancient pacts with the spirits of the air, requiring them to lay a curse upon the named target in exchange for a boon.

Level: 2

Effect: For the duration of the ritual, the target gains one disadvantage or limitation that the ritualist suffers (e.g. a vampire ritualist could impose a fear of fire). The curse imposed will determine the difficulty of the test.

If affecting another player-character, the ritualist chooses at the time of casting whether to impose the curse during the current downtime or the subsequent session.

Duration: One session or one downtime period

Test: Mental + Occult

Possible Group Benefits:

• Majority Interpretation: the ritualist gains +1 to the test to activate the ritual (may be taken more than once)

• Multiple Targets: the ritualist may add another target who is substantially connected to the other target(s) who suffers the same curse (may be taken more than once).

• Extended Duration: the ritual’s duration is extended by one step, e.g. instead of the subsequent session, it will affect the subsequent session and the downtime after that.

The ritualist enters into an ecstatic trance and considers the stars for an hour, gaining insights into what is destined.

Level: 3

Effect: the ritualist selects a single endeavour (e.g. petition the Prince for the right to settle). A successful test grants a number of tokens equal to the Ritualist’s Dur-an-Ki rating, each of which can be used to grant a +1 bonus on a test taken to directly advance this endeavour. No more than two tokens can be used on any one test.

Duration: One session or one downtime action

Cost/Limitation: The ritual relies on precise timing so cannot be active at the same time as other rituals that also require precise timing.

Test: Mental + Occult

Possible Group Benefits:

• Unconscious Alignment: if the Ritualist fails a relevant test and would have succeeded had their pool been one higher, they may spend two tokens to count as having achieved a single success. If the failure was a Bestial Failure it still counts.

• Order out of Chaos: if the Ritualist suffers a Bestial Failure on a relevant test, they may choose to spend two tokens to convert it to an ordinary failure instead.

• Clarity of Purpose: the number of tokens a ritualist can spend on a single test is increased by one (this may be taken multiple times).

Comparing the obscurest details of ancient pacts with the subtlest movements of celestial bodies, the ritualist identifies both a celestial spirit that will be present at a certain location and time, and symbolic elements that will call the spirit to its duty.

Level: 5

Effect: the ritualist can call upon the spirit to attend them as a free action. Obtaining service from the spirit requires a separate Dur-an-Ki test. If the spirit is currently performing a task, it cannot be summoned, but can be summoned repeatedly as long as the ritual is active.

Duration: One session or one downtime action

Cost/Limitation: The ritual relies on precise timing so cannot be active at the same time as other rituals that also require precise timing.

Test: Mental + Occult

Possible Group Benefits:

• Confluence of Spirits: the ritualist may have a second spirit attend them.

• Propitious Moment: the ritualist gains +1 to Dur-an-Ki test targeting the spirit while the ritual is active (This may be taken multiple times. If this is taken when more than one spirit has been summoned, it must be taken an equal number of times for each spirit).

• Apposite Pact: the spirit sees the ritualist’s current success as advancing whatever arcane purpose it pursues, so is likely to act in their interests rather than against them where relevant.