Mercurian Rituals

• Translation of the Mercurian rituals requires a laboratory. If the character chooses he can experiment (ArM5, page 107), which may change the ritual slightly, but not in a predictable manner.

• For each season of translating the Mercurian Laboratory Text, the character accumulates a number of points equal to the amount by which his Lab Total in the appropriate Arts of the ritual exceeds the level of the ritual. When the character has accumulated points equal to the level of the ritual he has translated it. This process produces a Hermetic copy of the ritual. These rules mean that in order to translate a Mercurian ritual the magus must have a Lab Total greater than the ritual level. In order to translate the ritual in a single season, the magus requires a Lab Total equal to two times the ritual level.

• Once he has translated the ritual the character can then invent the ritual from the Hermetic version of the Laboratory Text using the normal rules for inventing spells from a Laboratory Text.

• Any Hermetic magus can use the Hermetic copy of the Laboratory Text to invent the ritual, even if he does not have access to the Mercurian original.

• The rituals are non-Hermetic and so must be invented exactly as described in the translated text — the Range and so on cannot be varied. If the magus experiments (see ArM5, page 107) then, obviously, some parameters may potentially change (at the discretion of the storyguide).

• Each Mercurian ritual must be translated separately. However, if the character has translated some Mercurian rituals, he receives a bonus to subsequent translation Lab Totals equal to the highest magnitude of the Mercurian rituals he has already translated. This bonus does not apply to the Lab Total for invention; it only applies to the translation.

Purification

CrCo 40

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, ritual

This ritual may only be cast on another character who has a Decrepitude Score of 1 or higher. The caster cannot cast it on himself. During the ritual the target must be bathed in water, in a consecrated temple of Mercury. The target’s apparent age is reduced by 5 years and his Decrepitude Score is reduced by 1. The player also removes up to 5 Aging Points currently allocated to the character’s characteristics.Assuming that the vis is available, and the caster is willing, the ritual may be cast multiple times in quick succession (to reduce a high Decrepitude Score to a much lower value). The ritual has no effect if the target character has a Decrepitude Score of 0. Note that the ritual does not reduce the actual age of the character, so it has no effect on the Aging Roll. Commentary included in the Lab Text suggests that the Mercurian priests used this ritual in a similar manner to the way Hermetic magi use the Longevity Ritual. The ritual is compatible with the Longevity Ritual. This ritual breaks the Hermetic Limit of Aging.

The Scrying Pool

InIm 20

R: Arcane, D: Concentration/Special, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual allows the caster to see an image of the target and his immediate surroundings in the surface of the pool of water in the Scrying Office (in the Basillica). The ritual is specifically designed for this pool; another similar pool cannot be used. If Wizard’s Communion is used to cast this ritual, then it only expires when all of the casting magi cease to concentrate. Individual magi may cease concentrating and rejoin later. In this way, by taking shifts, the ritual may be prolonged for hours, days, potentially even years. Only magi who participated in the Wizard’s Communion may join or rejoin the ritual. This effect is a special feature of how this ritual was originally designed to interact with Wizard’s Communion; these rules do not apply to other spells.

Raising the Auxiliaries for a Day

CrMe 35

R: Voice, D: Sun, T: Group, Ritual

This ritual cast from the porch of a consecrated temple of Mercury (see Consecration of Mercury’s House), on a group of up to 100 characters, gives the characters a +1 bonus to Attack and Defense rolls and allows the characters to fight together in trained groups, assuming that there are sufficient officers available to lead the groups. Characters who are already affected by this ritual do not gain additional benefit from subsequent castings.

Penetrate the Regio Skin

Cr(Re)Vi 25

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual creates a new entrance through a Magic regio boundary. The entrance is up to one pace in diameter, and a successful Dex + Finesse roll against an Ease Factor of 6 is required to precisely control where the entrance physically is. The caster must be able to sense the regio boundary in order to cast this ritual and the storyguide may rule that some regio boundaries are impervious to this ritual. Note that this ritual only penetrates Magic regiones; different versions may be discovered for other sorts of regio.

Blessing of Mercury

CrVi 30

R: Touch, D: Year, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual may only be cast in a consecrated temple dedicated to Mercury (see Consecration of Mercury’s House). The target gains +3 to all Casting and Laboratory totals for the duration of the spell. If a character is already affected by this ritual, successive casting have no effect except to reset the duration. (recovered from the Hermetic lab in the complex)

Transformation of Flesh to Spirit

CrVi(Co) 60

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Structure, Ritual

At the climax of this ritual, which must be cast within a consecrated temple of Mercury, the caster kills herself and if she is powerful enough the aura permanently increases by 1 (to a maximum of 10). To determine whether the aura increases two criteria must be met: the caster must have no Art Score with a value less than twice the current aura level, and the Penetration of the ritual must exceed five times the current aura value. If this ritual is cast using Wizard’s Communion then only the leader of the ritual must kill herself, and only the values of her Art Scores are significant. If a character learns of this ritual it may occur to her that the reputed sacrifice of Trianoma to increase the aura of Durenmar may have been a version of this ritual.

Commune with Mercury

InVi 20

R: Personal, D: Concentration, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual, cast within a consecrated temple of Mercury, allows the character to communicate in their mind with the god Mercury; or at least someone claiming that he is. Whether the god has anything useful to say is up to the troupe. Note that this ritual does not need to Penetrate to have an effect.

Wizard’s Communion

MuVi 5, MuVi 10, and MuVi 20

R: Voice, D: Momentary, T: Group

These Mercurian “rituals” translate to Wizard’s Communion (ArM5, page 160). There are first magnitude, second magnitude, and fourth magnitude versions. Note that these are not actually rituals. Obviously, as Wizard’s Communion already exists in the Hermetic repertoire there is little point translating this text. The fact that there are already existing Hermetic versions suggests that another magus has translated similar rituals gathered from another site. Perhaps this was some of the work that Bonisagus did at Aventine Hill.

Consecration of Mercury’s House

CrVi 55

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Structure, Ritual

This momentary ritual opens a temple shell to habitation by Mercury. This creates a level 1 Magic aura within the temple precinct (which may be then swamped by a larger aura of a different sort). As this is a momentary Creo ritual, once the ritual has been cast the aura remains and cannot be dispelled. If the temple already has a Magic aura the existing aura is not increased by the casting of this spell. Another effect of this spell is that the temple has the magical property that it is consecrated to Mercury, which is important for some of the other recovered Mercurian rituals. The consecration can be detected by Hermetic Intellego Vim magic (as an effect of eleventh magnitude) and this effect can also be dispelled with Heremtic Perdo Vim (even though the aura itself cannot be dispelled). If the consecration is dispelled the ritual can be cast again to restore this property. The temple shell must be built to the same plan as the ruined temple (just the temple itself, in the center of the town). The temple can be a different size to this exemplar temple, however. The ruined temple is not currently consecrated.

Wizard’s Initiation

CrVi(Co) 75

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual may only be cast in a consecrated temple dedicated to Mercury (see Consecration of Mercury’s House). The target of this ritual gains The Gift. Unfortunately, this ritual does not work. To Hermetic eyes, there does not seem to be anything wrong. It just fails when cast. The Mercurian priests were aware of this, and their commentary on the ritual indicates that the ritual began to occasionally fail in the early first century AD and seems to have been totally unusable by the fourth century. This problem did not just affect the priests at this temple; it was a problem across the empire, and it is often mentioned in the correspondence between temples (which is stored in Correspondence Office). The Mercurian priests identified the cause of this crisis as the passing from the astrological Age of Aries into the astrological Age of Pisces, which was occurring at this time. Something about the ritual is incompatible with the Age of Pisces and the priests also noticed a change in the balance of power between the realms with the changing astrological age. The Mercurian priests were unable to repair their initiation ritual and the failure of the priests to solve this problem certainly contributed to the collapse of the Cult of Mercury.