The Chromatic Chord

Sacrificial Magic

The compound school of Aqua with Imago, Verba, and Ignis, built around exchange under pressure. See The Schools of Magic.

Philosophy

Sacrificial Magic is built around exchange in extremity. If other schools try to spread cost across environment, preparation, technique, and time, sacrificial practice collapses those costs into one brutal question: what are you willing to spend right now?

Because the answer can be blood, pain, breath, memory, years of life, treasured objects, oath-bound service, or living beings, the school's reputation varies wildly. Some temples allow only willing offerings. Some warbands permit battlefield self-bleeding but kill anyone who sacrifices a captive. Some cults reject all restraint. Nowhere else does what magic allows part so openly from what people will stand for.

Example Places of Study

  • The Red Altars: Temple colleges that keep sacrificial rites to an old rule: the offering is freely given, before the whole community.
  • The Ember Vows: War-chapels where sellswords and garrison knights learn emergency self-sacrifice and wound-fuelled battle magic.
  • The Hollow Counting Houses: Hunted circles that buy and sell sacrifice like grain, and whose cellars hide engines that are never quite fed enough.
  • The House of Ash Debt: A severe monastic order that studies redemptive loss, lifespan bargains, and rightful offering.
  • The Knife Choirs: Hidden cult schools where predatory sacrifice, ecstatic pain rites, and catastrophic overdraw are pursued deliberately.

Common Spells

Blood Price · Ashen Bargain · Years to Flame · Heart Tithe · Pain Lens · Feast of Knives · Victim's Gate · Altar Surge · Bone Fuel · Wound Covenant · Harvest of Breath · Red Battery · Funeral Debt · Choir of Offerings · Lifespan Bridge · Hunger Engine · Ruin Feast · Mercy Offering

Blood Price

Purpose/How It Works
Blood Price opens a wound or consumes prepared blood to provide an immediate burst of power for another spell cast in the same breath.
Notable Exceptions
Small payments scale badly. Repeated use causes dizziness, collapse, and miscasting long before death.
Example Use
A hedge-mage cornered by bandits cuts her palm and doubles the force of a ward for a few desperate heartbeats.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by the caster's own blood, stored blood, or a willing donor source combined with rapid-release shaping.
Casting Methods
Quick cut, a breath. Basin draw, a few breaths.
Range/Duration
Self or linked spell. Instant boost to a short sequence.

Ashen Bargain

Purpose/How It Works
Ashen Bargain burns a valued object, written vow, or symbolic possession into short-term magical output matched to its emotional and social weight.
Notable Exceptions
Sentimental value matters. Meaningless junk burns hot physically but weak magically.
Example Use
A prince fleeing the usurper's swords burns his signet to power the escape rite that keeps the line alive.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by meaningful possessions, fire, and the caster's reserves to shape the release.
Casting Methods
Throw into flame, a few heartbeats. Altar bargain rite, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Self or linked ritual. An instant to a short while.

Years to Flame

Purpose/How It Works
Years to Flame spends a portion of the caster's future vitality, stamina, or longevity to massively intensify present output.
Notable Exceptions
The exact years lost are rarely known in the moment. Repeated use ages body and reserve out of proportion to appearance.
Example Use
An old war-saint spends the rest of his good years in one dawn to hold a bridge.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by the caster's own vital reserves and the Aion-weighted span of years still ahead.
Casting Methods
Self-vow cast, a few heartbeats. Lifespan rite before the altar, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Self or linked spell. An instant to the end of the struggle at hand.

Heart Tithe

Purpose/How It Works
Heart-Tithe extracts a fixed pulse of life from a willing or restrained target and channels it into healing, protection, or destructive power elsewhere.
Notable Exceptions
Compatibility matters. Poorly matched donors waste a large share of the transfer.
Example Use
Three sworn guardians each pay a fraction of their strength to keep the queen alive through the fever night.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by a living donor's lifeforce, blood rhythm, and strong binding structure.
Casting Methods
Touch draw, a few breaths. Circle tithe rite, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Touch or linked circle. An instant's transfer to a short while.

Pain Lens

Purpose/How It Works
Pain Lens converts acute suffering into sharpened magical precision, letting a spell cut cleaner or hold truer for a short interval.
Notable Exceptions
It improves focus only while the pain remains meaningful and controlled. Overload becomes noise.
Example Use
A ritualist tightens the wire around his arm to hold a surgical barrier absolutely still.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by inflicted or endured pain, body focus, and the caster's reserves.
Casting Methods
Immediate pain cast, a heartbeat or two. Torture-lens rite, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Self or linked spell. A few heartbeats to a short while.

Feast of Knives

Purpose/How It Works
Feast of Knives links multiple small bloodlettings from a group into one pooled surge strong enough to power a major communal effect.
Notable Exceptions
Poor coordination turns the group weak without producing a stable result. Infection and panic are common practical risks.
Example Use
Village defenders cut their thumbs into the basin to raise the flood-bank wall before the river breaks.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by many minor donors, a basin or altar, and clear collective intention.
Casting Methods
Group blooding, a short chant. Full communal rite, a lengthy rite.
Range/Duration
Community-scale linked effect. An instant's surge to a short while.

Victim's Gate

Purpose/How It Works
Victim's Gate uses a severe offering to force open a path, circle, or otherwise impossible working that the caster could not sustain by skill alone.
Notable Exceptions
This is one of the most infamous sacrificial workings because it rewards coercion and desperation. Most peoples treat it as murder and worse, and kill the caster if they can.
Example Use
A cult kills a captive to wrench open a breach into a sealed tomb chamber and the treasure the barrow-king took with him.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by a large living sacrifice, blood saturation, and heavy binding geometry.
Casting Methods
Knife-and-circle rite, a long rite. Great gate ceremony, an hour's ritual or more.
Range/Duration
One breach, gate, or impossible effect. Duration depends on the linked working.

Altar Surge

Purpose/How It Works
Altar Surge stores offerings in a consecrated site and releases them later as a single controlled burst.
Notable Exceptions
Badly maintained altars leak power, attract hostile attention, or explode in doctrinally ugly ways.
Example Use
A temple empties a year's votive reserve into the city shield during the eclipse assault.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by accumulated offerings, oath-marked storage, and the altar's containment structure.
Casting Methods
Altar draw, a few breaths. Full reserve release, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Site-bound reservoir. An instant's burst to a night's steady release.

Bone Fuel

Purpose/How It Works
Bone Fuel burns processed bone, marrow salts, or ancestor remains into heat and structural magical output.
Notable Exceptions
Cultural acceptance varies sharply. Many communities allow animal bone fuel but treat human remains as desecration unless specifically consented.
Example Use
A besieged smithy keeps forging swords with battlefield bone-char after the coal stores run out.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by processed bone matter, furnace heat, and the caster's shaping discipline.
Casting Methods
Furnace cast, a few heartbeats. Kiln rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration
One furnace, engine, or linked spell. A short while to a day's firing.

Wound Covenant

Purpose/How It Works
Wound Covenant binds two or more participants to share the cost of a spell physically, so no one body takes the full burn alone.
Notable Exceptions
Unequal strength inside the covenant often means the weakest still pay worst. Treachery during the link is catastrophic.
Example Use
Three healers share the burn through the night after the raid, while the wounded fill the temple floor.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by linked blood, mutual consent or coercive binding, and each knowing their part.
Casting Methods
Shared cut, a few slow breaths. Covenant rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration
Small circle. One working to one day.

Harvest of Breath

Purpose/How It Works
Harvest of Breath takes stamina, breath, and immediate vigour from nearby bodies rather than deep lifeforce, making it a favoured spell for nonlethal but vicious overdraw.
Notable Exceptions
Large drains can still kill the weak, the sick, or the already wounded.
Example Use
A lord's war-mage drops a starving mob at the granary gate by stealing its breath to feed the barrier line.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by ambient living bodies, respiratory strain, and the caster's reserves to shape the capture.
Casting Methods
Crowd siphon, a few heartbeats. Smoke-circle rite, a minute's chant.
Range/Duration
Several bodies up to a crowd filling a street. A few heartbeats to a short while.

Red Battery

Purpose/How It Works
Red Battery stores blood-backed power in a prepared vessel for later use, making sacrifice portable and schedulable.
Notable Exceptions
Stored sacrificial charge decays badly, becomes unstable, and may develop ugly symbolic side effects if left too long.
Example Use
Smugglers carry sealed red ampoules to power silence wards on runs past the border forts.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by blood or lifeforce offerings, a prepared vessel, and stabilizing inscriptions.
Casting Methods
Vessel charging, a short rite. Preserved battery rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration
Container-bound storage. Days to weeks depending on quality.

Funeral Debt

Purpose/How It Works
Funeral Debt converts a vow of future service, mourning, or repayment, spoken before kin and neighbours, into immediate magical credit.
Notable Exceptions
The debt remains real. If unpaid, backlash often falls on bloodline, household, or temple rather than the original caster alone.
Example Use
A poor district promises ten years of shrine labour to power plague wards through the winter.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by binding vows, the hearing of kin and neighbours, and future obligation bound into the spell.
Casting Methods
Spoken vow, a minute's speech. Temple debt rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration
Community, household, or individual obligation. Immediate effect with long tail.

Choir of Offerings

Purpose/How It Works
Choir of Offerings weaves many different sacrificial media such as blood, incense, coin, memory, and oath into one harmonized large-scale working.
Notable Exceptions
Complexity is the enemy. Misbalanced choirs fracture into cascading side effects.
Example Use
On the eve of a siege, every quarter of the city brings a coin, a drop of blood, or a name to the altars, and the walls' wards blaze through the first assault.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by multiple symbolic offerings, ritual leadership, and a ring of steady altars.
Casting Methods
Formal choral rite, an hour's ritual. Great public ceremony, most of a day.
Range/Duration
A district or a whole city. A night to several seasons, depending on target.

Lifespan Bridge

Purpose/How It Works
Lifespan Bridge transfers a span of vitality from one person to another, often to carry the dying through a crisis or empower a champion.
Notable Exceptions
Compatibility and consent are central. Forced bridges are notorious for instability, madness, and social horror.
Example Use
An old king gives his remaining winter to the heir so the line survives the coup.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by donor lifespan, lifeforce compatibility, and strong ceremonial structure.
Casting Methods
Touch bridge, a short chant. Throne or deathbed rite, a long rite.
Range/Duration
Touch or linked pair. Immediate transfer with lasting consequence.

Hunger Engine

Purpose/How It Works
Hunger Engine binds a spell or construct to ongoing feeding requirements so it remains strong as long as offerings continue.
Notable Exceptions
Once established, the engine tends to demand more than originally promised. It is the working of cults and tyrants.
Example Use
A fortress maintains an impossible storm wall so long as prisoners are bled into the cistern below.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by recurring sacrifice, the engine's frame, and strict binding patterns to delay runaway escalation.
Casting Methods
Engine installation, an hour's ritual. Major foundation rite, a day's ceremony.
Range/Duration
One construct, ward, or sustained effect. Indefinite while fed.

Ruin Feast

Purpose/How It Works
Ruin Feast devours the stored significance of a site such as vows, burials, consecration, or a town's memory and converts it into one catastrophic burst.
Notable Exceptions
It permanently damages the site's identity. Even victorious users are often marked by social and symbolic backlash for generations.
Example Use
A fleeing usurper burns his own crowning hall into a firestorm rather than let rebels take it.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by sacred or historic meaning bound into a place, plus a working to set it loose.
Casting Methods
Desecration cast, a long rite. Full ruin ceremony, an hour's ritual or longer.
Range/Duration
One site. Instant devastation to lingering corruption.

Mercy Offering

Purpose/How It Works
Mercy Offering allows a willing community to spread small, survivable losses across many people so one desperate healing or defence working does not kill a single donor.
Notable Exceptions
It remains costly and can still break the frail, but it is one of the few sacrificial workings widely defended as right when openly given.
Example Use
A plague quarter gives a little blood and a little breath each to save the fever house from collapse.
Typical Cost/Power Source
Usually fed by many willing minor offerings, the gathered community, and disciplined sharing rites.
Casting Methods
Collective offering, a long rite. Temple-supervised rite, an hour's ritual.
Range/Duration
Community-linked working. Immediate to one day.

In the Writers’ Guide

See Also