Becoming a Sorcerer

So you think you’re a Sorcerer now, do you?

Lets start this off by getting making this clear; you are not a Sorcerer. You are an alchemist, someone from a religious order of the Church, a practitioner of some ancient religious rites, the student of some mystic order, a quiet follower of the Church with a deep and powerful Faith, someone bargaining with dark forces for understanding of greater control over the world, or any of hundreds of other things.

You are whoever has brought you to this moment of clarity and understanding and that is who you will remain being as you continue on your path afterward. This is not a soul rending transformation. You have not been torn apart and born anew. Rather you have been trained for this; your understanding of the world has been refined to such a degree that you can, with focus of will and determination, effect change in the world around you beyond the ability and understanding of common people.

You and other practitioners of these arts may have very little in common in your backgrounds. Even the simple understanding of the way you are able to do what you do may be wildly divergent between people who have come to these abilities via different paths . However, each of you has, through your varied training, reached an understanding of a more objective Truth. You each have learned some part of a collection of abilities that together are commonly referred to as Sorcery and those who use these abilities are collectively known as Sorcerers.

You might choose to either embrace or shun these titles. The words Sorcerer and Sorcery have a great deal of subtext that might make you uncomfortable. They are words that might cause you trouble with the Church. While the King’s Law allows the practice of magic and miracle work for benevolent ends you are well advised to avoid using such terms in polite company or with strangers.

Prior to your change from a common person to a Sorcerer you have been being trained. Your parents have been teaching you their practices, your mentor has been instructing you in a magical path, God has been whispering in your ear, or something. Regardless of the means of instruction you have been taught about these arts. If this is something your character is learning in game you will be learning from another PC or possibly an NPC. The individual training you will be teaching you the way to interact with the world from their perspective. Your teacher and how you are taught will greatly influence the way you practice Sorcery and the types of Foci you will use to direct your will.

This is how mystic practices are passed on: from teacher to student. The student learns that magic works in the way they are instructed and significantly different ways of performing magic are wrong (even if they actually work just as well). Regardless of who the student learns from, family secrets, holy order, or mystic fellowship, the way the Sorcerer’s understands what they are able to do is defined and takes on the distinct flavor of how they were taught. Two practitioners who cannot find a common frame of reference may not be able to communicate effectively about their practice even though they are both “Sorcerers.”

There are a lot of ways for someone to get to being a Sorcerer and unless a character is being trained by a mystic fellowship the player is largely being left to sort out how your magic works for themselves. How one’s reality is defined helps to make for an interesting, coherent, and compelling character. You need to know why and how your character can do these magical things and make it part of a coherent, self-contained narrative. Without this narrative and context Sorcery is just a collection of abilities on a character sheet. You have no Tribe, Auspice, Breed or Clan to fall back on. Outside of the mystic fellowships you don’t have a lot of canon to help organize and flesh things out. Instead with Sorcery you have thousands of years of various mystical and magical practices to filter through and find something to make your own.

The moment of transformation from a Commoner to a Sorcerer is that moment where all the training finally comes together and makes sense. It is a flash of insight where what you’ve been taught becomes something you can put into practice. Perhaps this is a stressful moment forcing you to draw upon your teachings to save yourself or someone you care about. Perhaps this moment is a quiet reflection out in the woods where you are at peace with yourself and the world. Perhaps this is even as you are sitting with your instructor discussing the various practices of your art.

This understanding is a profound and yet subtle transformation of who and what you are. You can change the world in some small way with little more than a thought, a device to focus your will, and following the correct formula. Perhaps this grants you a heady sense of power or maybe you are humbled by the forces of the world that you can now, in some limited way, perceive and manipulate.

After this transformation the world is never quite the same again. You are all too aware of the truth behind the stories of people being able to perform fantastic feats. If some of it is true what other parts of it might be true. You do not know what is there but a lot more outside of your direct experience seems plausible and that can make the world a much more scary place.

Worse though is that you have separated yourself from your less enlightened fellows. While you are not some powerful monster stalking the night. You are still different from the average person. You cannot readily discuss what it is you know with the uninitiated. While they might show you honor and respect for your exceptional skills they might as easily fear or envy your new-found abilities and chase you out of town or turn you over to the Church to be tried for heresy.

Now that you are removed from most of the people around you everyday, realize that there are plenty of forces from willful, greedy mortals to ancient supernatural powers who will now find you to be a better tool than the more common folk surrounding you. These forces will seek to manipulate, control, and use you for their own interests. These interests may be diametrically opposed to your own; a situation that those trying to get you to act in their favor are very unlikely to be concerned with. If you are particularly attentive or lucky you might even be able to recognize who or what is using you and the game they are playing.

You likely have the support of the individuals and groups responsible for your training but beyond that and any family you might have you have a shortage of natural allies. You may be able to find others of a similar path to work with. However, any other mystical practitioner out there is as likely to be as secretive and subtle as you are. Simply finding another Sorcerer or a Mage does not mean that you can effectively work together even should you want to.

There are allies to be found outside of fellow mystical practitioners Unfortunately, there is risk in aligning yourself with other supernatural forces, if they will even talk to you. Perhaps being a willing pawn or a slightly more aware pawn is better than an unwilling one kept completely in the dark. That is difficult to say. Just remember in an uneven alliance like this you are not likely to be the one making the important decisions. Further, once your usefulness has reached its end they may look to ensure your silence to keep their own secrets.

So, congratulations on becoming a “Sorcerer” and good luck; you’re going to need it!