Magic is life. Life is magic. Magic is stored in the spleens of all sentient beings.

Wizards are special beings who can extract the magic from their spleens and use it to cast spells. The wizard's experience (level) determines how efficiently the wizard can use this magic. High level wizards can do with a fraction of the spleen magic what low-level wizards take the whole spleen for. In game terms, this is represented by the power point concept. The number of power points is the fraction of the spleen's magic used for casting spells.

Casting Spells

When a spell is cast, the magic is drained from the spleen. First level spells drain one power point; second level spells drain two points, etc. A wizard cannot cast (or memorise) spells of a level higher than his/her Max Spell Level.

Note that unlike the standard AD&D system, the wizard can choose the spell to be cast at the moment of casting and can cast the same memorised spell more than once. The only requirement is that the wizard must have the spell memorised (see later for the mechanics of this process).

When the wizard's power point total hits zero, s/he can call on the residual life magic of his/her spleen to cast one final spell of his/her maximum level. The wizard dies instantly but after the spell goes off. This allows the wizard the option of performing a final life- sacrificing spell.

Recovery of Magic Power

Magic does slowly replenish itself, but this takes a long time - the wizard will fully recharge in 10 days (if doing daily-gain calculations, always round unfavourably. E.g. A second level mage with 5 PP would get 1 point on days 3, 5, 8 and 10). However, most wizards will consume magical power to replenish their spleens. This is done, orally, in one of three ways:

Consuming one raw spleen of a similar race to the wizard will recharge him/her. The spleen must still be warm - the victim must not have been dead for more than five minutes. It is quite difficult to remove the spleen, and even more so to swallow the horrible thing. The wizard must make a DEX roll to get the spleen out intact, and then a CON roll to swallow it. Failure indicates copious vomiting and the eaten spleen is ruined. After ten successful spleen removals, the wizard will have the knack and will not need to make the DEX roll any more. For each successful spleen consumed, the wizard gets a + 1 bonus to his/her CON for future consumption. When it reaches 20 then no more CON rolls need be made. For each failure, the wizard gets a -1 penalty. If it reaches 5, the wizard will always fail.

100 grams of unrefined raw Star Stuff recharges the wizard. However Raw Star Stuff is highly dangerous. It is the stuff of life. The stuff of pure ecstasy. Just being in the presence of Star Stuff drives a wizard crazy with magic and lust. S/he will keep consuming it and smearing it over his/her naked body until s/he passes out. It is up to the DM to inflict some perverted sexual lust-crazed mania onto the wizard that is foolish enough to try to take magic via this method. Half or third MND rolls might alleviate the effects. Ecstatic unconsciousness will follow in most cases.

The United Guild of Wizards has managed to distil Star Stuff down into a safer form. Many centuries ago they invented a new type of plant. A vine that produced small, round, bite-sized, juicy, green fruit that grew in bunches. Using this fruit, the Guild infused each delicious morsel with 10 distilled grams of Star Stuff. The fruit was named the "grape" and all sane wizards then after took their magic this way. Grapes are available to all members being one of the benefits of belonging to The Guild. One standard grape recharges the wizard. Grapes have a half-life of a week. Dehydrated grapes (called "Raisins') have a half-life of two seasons (144 days) and are also available from The Guild (see later).

The act of eating even one grape/paste/spleen totally wipes the wizard's mind of all spell memory. S/he must re-read his/her spell book(s) to get back the memory of the spell incantations and gestures (see later).

Over Indulging

If a wizard (or normal person for that matter) attempts to consume more magic than his/her spleen can hold, consult the following:

1 over: The wizard acts excessively drunk. The wizard takes longer to learn spells and can miscast them. Spells take double time to memorise. The wizard must make a successful MND-4 roll to cast the spell and a DEX-2 roll if the spell has somatic components. Failure indicates the spell misfires (and the power is lost).

2 over: The wizard acts extremely drunk. Permanent brain damage is possible. Make an MND roll or lose one MND point permanently. Spells take quadruple time to memorise and a half MND roll must be made. Failure means the memorisation fails - start again. To cast spells, as above except MND/2 and DEX/2.

3 over: Super drunk. Permanent damage is even more likely. Spell memorisation is not possible. Save vs. MND-4 for permanent MND loss of 1 point.

4 over: Unconscious. Make a CON roll or die. Save vs. MND/2 for permanent MND loss of D4 points.

5 over and above: Dead.

The body will naturally break down excess magic. One excess power point is consumed every 12 hours. It must be stressed that this applies only to excess magic. Normal magic power within the allowable limits will stay around in the spleen indefinitely.

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The Wizard's Spell Book

The wizard's spell book is probably the most priceless item the wizard can own. It is the depository for all of his/her spells and describes all of the words, gestures and ingredients needed to cast the spells. The paragraphs of a spell are very personal and are therefore unique to the individual wizard. This is why it is quite difficult for a wizard to read and understand another's book.

The wizard's spell book has been standardised by The Guild. It is like a large A4 ring- binder and can hold up to 200 pages. The covers are made of lead (magic absorbing) and covered with goatskin. There are two clasps that fold up from the base to lock the book shut. The mechanism for holding the pages in works like a modem lever-action ring- binder. The whole thing weighs two kilograms when empty and three when full of pages.

A unique barcode number is invisibly emblazoned (wizard mark) on the spine in magical writing allowing the Guild to track down a member to return his/her book.

Each spell takes up a certain number of pages of the book. When the book is full, therefore, the wizard must get another.

The wizard's MND strictly limits the number of spells of a particular level s/he can have in his/her book too (table below). Once this limit is reached, the wizard may destroy existing spells to make more "brain-space". The Wizard's MND also affects the chance that a wizard will understand a new spell s/he comes across. This is the %learn from the table below.

% Chance to learn and Max spells table

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Spell Memorisation

To cast a spell the wizard must have two things: surplus magical power in his/her spleen and the spell phrases memorised in his/her mind (plus spell ingredients if necessary, of course). The power is obtained through grapes as detailed above. The spell memory is obtained by memorisation.

Recall that the very act of regaining magical power (eating grapes/paste/spleens) expunges all spell memory from the wizard's mind. Hence, the wizard must re-memorise his/her spells regularly. To do this, the wizard must read and learn the spells from his/her spell book.

Before memorising can take place, the wizard must clear his or her mind. This is achieved by doing fifteen minutes of uninterrupted meditation. If this meditation is interrupted, it must be started again.

After the meditation, it takes 5 minutes of uninterrupted concentration per page to read and memorise a spell. If this concentration is broken, then the memorisation must be begun from the start (of the spell).

Note that the wizard need not memorise all of his/her spells at once. S/he need only memorise a small subset of them if desired, but this will of course mean that only those spells memorised can be cast.

The player should write down by each spell the number of pages and the order that the spells are learned plus the total time to memorise the lot. This will cover the situations when limited spell-learning time, is available.

A wizard cannot memorise spells of a higher spell-level than s/he can cast.

A wizard cannot memorise spells from another wizard's book. These spells must be studied and copied first.

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New Spells

A wizard can get new spells in one of three ways:

• Scrolls.
• “Gift” spell. A gift spell is the spell received by a member wizard from The Guild when s/he goes up a level.
• From another wizard's spell book.

Before these new spells can be memorised (or cast), they must be studied, understood, and then written into the wizard's book. (Note that for scrolls and other wizards' books, if the wizard chooses, s/he can cast the spell immediately - this will ignite the scroll/pages. Read Magic is still required for other books to do this.)

If the wizard already has the spell (and is recopying it to reduce the number of pages), then the original must be erased from his/her book first.

Halfway through the Studying time, the wizard will realise whether s/he understands the spell or not. Make the % chance to learn spell roll. See the table on the previous page. This table has the built in +/-15% that Specialists gain/suffer when learning spells in/out of their school. Also remember that Specialists are forbidden some schools of spells. (Also don't forget that wizards are strictly limited by their MND as to the number of spells they may have in their book).

If the wizard understands the spell then s/he can write it into his/her own book with the Write Magic spell. This writing time (15 minutes per page) is included in the studying time.

If the wizard cannot understand the spell, then s/he will never be able to understand it (but no blank pages are wasted).

Spells of a higher level than the wizard can normally cast can be copied, although they cannot of course be memorised or cast.

The wizard's book must of course have enough spare blank pages. Starting wizards receive some blank pages (see later). Additional pages are also available from the Wizards' Guild to members for free.

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Erasing Spells

Since the number of spells a wizard may have is strictly limited by MND, the wizard might want to remove a spell to make space for "better' spells. This is achieved by a purification ritual in which the wizard ceremonially burns the pages while reciting gibberish to expunge all memory from his/her mind.

If the wizard comes across the same spell again, the % chance to learn must be made again - so wizards that don't like the number of pages a spell takes can erase the spell but risk losing it for good. Remember, if you fail the %know chance, you can never learn this spell.

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Losing the Book

Probably the biggest concern to a wizard when s/he has lost his/her book is a merely financial one. The spell memory of all of the spells will still be in the wizard's mind. So, provided the wizard had memorised all of his/her spells and does not expunge the memory of them (by consuming some grapes (or spleens or star stuff)), s/he will be able to write his/her spells into a new blank replacement book (which can be bought from The Wizards' Guild). This rewriting takes 15 minutes per page.

However, if the wizard were foolish enough to consume a grape before discovering that the book was missing, all spell-memory would be irretrievably lost.

One Write Magic spell is enough to write all the wizard's memorised spells into the new book, but it must be done in one uninterrupted stint.

For low-level wizard's, this is no problem, but for high-level ones, this is where the trouble starts. Considering it takes 15 minutes per page, a 200-page book would take 50 hours to write. Tiredness and sleep will take their toll (make a successful CON roll every 12 hours to stay awake) – falling asleep counts as an interruption.

So the wizard has two options. S/he can either write in as many spells as possible until s/he falls asleep and the power runs out, then wait a few days for some power to return and continue, or, the normal way, have a horde of Write Magic spells on scrolls or in wands/items (available from The Guild).

Of course, having another spare spell book would solve the problem totally, but this goes against The Wizards' Guild constitution (see later).

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Starting Wizards' Spells

All wizards start out with a brand spanking new spell book containing the following spells:

Read Magic, Write Magic, and Detect Magic. Plus 4 1st-level spells of the player's choice.

In addition to these seven, Specialist Wizards receive two first level spells from their specialist school, and the Non-specialist receives only one extra first level spell (from any school).

Important: Apart from the Read, Write, and Detect Magic spells, the wizard must do a % chance to learn spell roll for each spell s/he chooses. If the roll fails, then the wizard can never get that spell, but may choose another. Don’t forget that the Specialist sets +15% (up to a maximum of 95 %) for spells from his/her school of specialisation and -15% for others. Also remember that Specialists are forbidden some schools of spells. See the table back a few pages.

The spells Read Magic, Write Magic, and Detect Magic each take only 1 page. Other spells will take more. For each of the other spells, roll D3+1 to see how many pages of the spell book they take up (unless you know already, i.e. you know number of pages of the teacher's spells. Don't forget to add 1 to each in this case). Write this number down by each spell on your character sheet.

Starting wizards also receive 3D4+3 free blank pages in their books plus the necessary writing equipment for them.

From then on, the wizard must buy extra pages and more writing equipment. The Guild sells these.

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The United Guild of Wizards (“The Guild”, “The Wizards' Guild”, “The UGW”)

The United Guild of Wizards began as a handful of Wizard Guilds about two thousand years ago. As time passed, more and more separate guilds joined or were "absorbed". The Guild now has a branch in almost every major town and is probably the largest single organisation in The Known World. All wizards are encouraged to join but are not forced to. However, since The Guild is the sole supplier of grapes, there are very few wizards in the world who are not members.

The Guild gives its members the following benefits (all prices quoted on the assumption that 1 gp = $20 NZ (1990 CPI)):

Free accommodation and a nourishing breakfast.

Access to training (for advancement of levels). This training takes the normal two days and costs the normal (new level squared)x50 gp. The wizard also receives a bonus “gift” spell of the highest level the wizard can then cast (make a normal % chance to learn spell roll) plus the necessary pages to write it (D4 per spell level). For specialist wizards the “gift” spell must be chosen from the specialist's school - if the wizard already has all the spells from that school, then, and only then, may another school's spell be selected. The Guild will train non-member wizards but they have to pay five times this cost and they get no "gift" spell.

The Guild supplies as many grapes as the wizard can eat if s/he is on Guild premises, or up to one week's supply if not (7 recharges/70 grapes). Normal grapes have a half-life of a week, so extra grapes can be bought off the local Guild Grapeman (@ 2 gp per recharge (10 grapes)). Or the new special dehydrated long-term grapes, “raisins”, which have a 100 day half-life, can be bought (@ 20 gp per recharge (10 raisins)).

Reduced cost healing draughts: 50gp for 2D4+2 hp. These must be consumed on premises.

Blank pages for new spells and the necessary writing equipment (cockatrice quills and enchanted giant-squid ink) are supplied free of charge provided that the spells are copied on Guild premises and under supervision. Blank pages are supplied to take away, but they then cost 25gp each (including the writing equipment).

Wizards who have filled up their first spell book, can get a new blank one for 200gp. On no account will the Guild supply a spare spell book since this goes against the constitution (see later).

For wizards who have lost their book, the Guild will supply a new one, the blank pages, and as many Write Magic scrolls that are necessary for the wizard to rewrite his/her book. Again this rewriting must be done on premises.

Likewise The Guild expects something in return:

The Guild expects the wizard to pay a tenth of his/her gross income earned since the last visit. It is not known how (or even whether) this is enforced since no member wizard has ever had to undergo a Detect Lie, or even a serious bout of questioning. But rumours abound of horrible magical deaths visited on renegers.

RGW - Requested Guild Work (humorously called "CGS - Compulsory Guild Service")

The wizard will be called up by The Guild some time in his/her life and requested to work for The Guild for one year. Long-lived beings (like Elves and half-elves) get called up once per century. Three months' notice will be given to the wizard of pending service, and s/he is politely asked to terminate whatever s/he is doing and prepare for the date. The RGW could be anything - suppression of coups, running a branch guild, magical research, illegal vegetable detection, auditing of tithes, etc.

Like with the Tithe, it is not known what happens to wizards who refuse RGW, but there are stories of disloyal wizards who refuse and vanish without a trace.

The Guild demands that all members show due respect and deference to their superiors (those who are of higher level). Respect is also due to Guild employees. Respect is due to Guild premises. Respect is due to other guests in the building too. This means no swearing, or drunkenness, or untidiness. If necessary, a wizard is expected to defend a Guild employee or premises with his/her life.

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Leaving The Guild

Joining The Guild is normally a commitment for life. There are only four special circumstances in which a member may leave:

• If a member loses his/her magic (through some curse or other powerful phenomenon) s/he has the option of either leaving The Guild or becoming an Associate Member.
• A member may petition The Guild Council and request a Membership Termination. The council then has total jurisprudence over this request.
• A member who is pregnant may leave The Guild. (This clause, the controversial "Pregnancy clause", was put in as an oversight at the creation of the constitution. This clause has had the most constitution removal attempts (294 times) outweighing all other change attempts by a factor of twenty. But thanks to the robustness of the constitution, it still remains even after two thousand years.) The definition of "pregnant" does cover orc-spawn, so males can use this clause too.
• A member may be deemed "unworthy" for Guild membership by The Guild Council and may have his/her membership revoked. The "unworthy" member is forced to go through the Aldeshaw Purge to remove all 'unworthiness" - normally resulting in death.

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Politics

In order to curtail its potentially enormous political power, the founders of The Guild created a very binding non-interference constitution. This was to alleviate the well-founded fears of many countries of The Known World that The Guild would become omnipotent - using its tremendous magical power to take over the world. The constitution absolutely and utterly forbids The Guild from interfering in local or global politics. There is nothing to stop some powerful wizard from usurping a local ruler, but she will have to do it under her own steam and will not have the support (or condemnation) from The Guild.

This constitution has remained in its present state for the last eleven hundred years; a glowing tribute to its creators. Malcontents, sceptics and recidivists opine that this is probably due to Article One that states that the constitution can only be changed or amended if and only if every member of The Guild agrees to the change. Thus giving any wizard, even the lowliest novice, the total power of veto over any change.

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Loyalty

The Guild, apart from the above benefits, does not go to any trouble to look after its own. A member enslaved will not be rescued or bought, kidnapped members will not be ransomed, members who are raped or murdered will not be avenged, and missing members will not be sought. The reason for this is again constitutional - there could easily be a situation where rescuing a kidnapped member would have significant political ramifications.

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The Global Magic Depletion Theory

The Global Magic Depletion Theory (GMDT) is a theory proposed thirteen hundred years ago that claims that the entropy of the magic in Prime Material Plane is increasing. This means that as time tends towards infinity, the (useable) magic in the world will tend to zero. Every time a spell is cast, or every time a magic item is used or created, the theory says that a little bit more of the total magic is converted from a useable state to a much lower level (and unusable) "wild" state. One strong claim that the theory states is that whenever any wizard copies a spell into a spell book (i.e. a permanent copy as opposed to scrolls that are only temporary), the global magic drops by a large (some claim measurable) amount.

Many wizards including many prominent Guild members state that this theory is rubbish and that either there is no evidence at all, or that the evidence given is all circumstantial and experimental error. There are as many adamant proponents on the other side too, who will stake their lives on the theory. Basically, nobody knows for sure.

The Wizards' Guild Constitution was written with the GMDT in mind and specifically states (Article 11) that wizards shall not own more than one spell book at once. This is why The Guild will only sell replacement spell books to members.

Article 12 states that wizards shall only copy a reasonable number of spells from someone else's spell book, but must be mindful of GMDT throughout the procedure.