Dawnism

One of the "Kepera" category of magics;

The art of crafting a wand; from a core wood(which carries a sliver of the soul pearl of the tree that gifts it), a wrapping, and a binding agent. Forging a soul pearl from the experience of creation, and working with the wand to grow both pearls over time. A wand's soul pearl is unlikely to be as smooth as most creatures. Instead they grow "lumpy" or "grooved" so the soul sea flowing through them is guided to create the effects the wand, and user, desire.

A practitioner of Dawnism is typically called a "Wielder"

More experienced practitioners have been called "Wizards"

Wands that become evil, a not-rare circumstance, are often called "Destroyers"

Mechanics

Each wand has a number of affinities depending on its construction. Wands count as tools for spells in their affinities; the stronger the affinity the higher the tool value. This is the only case of magic providing a d4 tool. Wands cannot perform spells they have no affinity for at all.

Wand spells have DCs. If your check exceeds the DC; the effect occurs.

Affinity

A wand’s affinities are drawn from its constituent parts. Simply add the affinity values of each element in the wands core, binding, and wrapping. A wand with more than one element from the same type of wood only benefits from the highest class; E.g. a wand with Ebony Core, Ebony Wrapping, and Yew Binding, would only count as having an Ebony Core and Yew Binding.

Depending on the strength of the affinity, wands count as different levels of tool for dawnism spells;

• 1-4 = d4
• 5-8 = d6
• 9-12= d8
• 13+ = d10

Flavour

Rolled For

Special Rules

You cannot attempt a dawnism check to cast a spell without a wand.

The act of casting a spell with a wand has obvious visual and auditory cues in addition to the actual effect of the spell.

Wands can take damage the same way the wielder can and use their wielder's defence against any effects that target them. The wand's resiliency roll is their wielder's dawnism modifier, and they add their highest affinity as a tool die. Some particularly unique or powerful wands can have their own resiliency modifier.

Bonding

A wand can be bonded to a single person at a time and each person can bond to a single wand. A wand cannot cast spells for someone it is not bonded to and will often be upset about being passed to another wielder. Upset wands can act out, cast incorrect spells, or attack their current wielders.

Powers

Tier 1

• Affinity infusion[You may select gain specialty with a specific dawnism wand affinity. These specialties improves all wands with that affinity as normal for that specific affinity but decrease all affinities of wielded wands that lack that affinity.]
• Dryad wood[You treat all woods, whether magical or not, as at least d4 tools on any interactions with dryads.]
• Lightholder[Your bonded wand doesn't count toward the maximum number of items you can carry]
• Natural Iron[You treat non-alloy metals as being a form of wood for the purpose of Dawnism spells.]
• Open minded initiate[By meditating, you can communicate mentally with wands you are not bonded to.]
• Transfer bond[You may pass a newly crafted wand to another creature without the wand being upset about a new owner.]
• Wilt[You may use Dawnism to to damage intelligent plant creatures and dryads. This acts like a Combat skill.]

Tier 2

• Bonded spells(Affinity Infusion)[Select a number of spells in your specialised dawnism wand affinity; you may attempt those spells with any wand, even if it lacks that affinity.]
• Open minded crafter(Open minded initiate)[By meditating, you can communicate mentally with wand wood source trees.]
• Pinewalker[You may spend 1 momentum to automatically succeed against dawnism effects created by forests.]
• Planting[With 1 hour of work you may produce a seed for the tree that acts as your wand's core.]
• Sharpen wand[If you can use a wand as a weapon in melee, its tool die minimum increases by 1]
• Wand friend[You can have 2 bonded wands at once.]
• Winterwood[Wands you wield are immune to cold damage.]

Tier 3

• Additional Affinity(Affinity Infusion)[Your affinity infusion ability applies to an additional affinity.]
• Counterpower[You can use your Dawnism defence against magical effects your wand has at least a d6 tool die for.]
• Forested arms(Lightholder)[Wands do not count toward the maximum number of items you can carry unless they also count as another item]
• Intertreediary[When you meditate to commune mentally with a tree, you can use the debate skill checks of your allies for any questions or checks directed toward the tree.]
• Silent spells[Your Dawnism spells don't make noise.]
• Thoughtsender[You can commune telepathically with nearby wand wielders.]
• Wilt binder(Wilt)[When you use the Wilt ability, you may choose to deal 0 damage and instead prevent the target from moving with their next movement phase.]

Woods

Wands are built of 3 main sections; The Core, the Binding, and the Wrapping. The core is the piece of wood that contains the shard of a soul. Core's are the largest section of a wand and are the source of the wand's special ability. Many wands with the same core have similar personalities, though such a personality can be influenced by the binding and wrapping to a minor extent. The binding doesn't have to be wood necessarily; bark, sap, vines or other materials work well for bindings. The binding protects the core from damage, and has the second greatest impact on the affinity of the wand. The Wrapping is usually minor and seemingly aesthetic, oftentimes being used to make the grip of the wand more comfortable in some way for the wielder. Wrappings have the smallest impact on a wands affinities, but are still necessary for a complete wand.

A wand can have 3 different source woods, one for each of Core, Binding, and Wrapping. If a wand has the same type of source wood in two different sections, such as an ash core and ash wrapping, only the highest source affinity applies.

Wand wood affinities are listed by type, followed by three numbers split by |, the first number is the affinity for a core, the second for a binding, and the third for a wrapping.

Wand Shapes

Wands can come in a variety of different forms, many of which can affect the powers and affinities of the wand. However, crafting a wand into a specific usable shape requires skill and training and cannot be done unless the crafter has the requisite ability.

• Weaponwand: A wand crafted into the shape of a weapon can be used just as well as the weapon itself. The wand counts as a weapon of its design and has a tool die on attacks equal to its lowest affinity tool die.
• Sicklewand: Unique among weapon wands is the sickle shape. A sickle wand has the traits[Slashing, Damage, Aiding(Slicing), Tool], however its tool die as a weapon is determined solely by its Food affinity.

Starting with a Wand

Wands work best in the Brachyr System if the creation of a wand is a system of opportunity over the course of play, where a character happens upon a core wood, refines it and eventually adds an appropriate binding they find one day, finishing it with a wrapping that they feel drawn to randomly. This makes the wands creation a part of the character's story and helps shape the personality of the wand over time.

However, it's completely understandable that randomly finding these woods may feel boring, or forced by the narrator, or the narrator might believe it to be too much work. Whatever the case may be, it's reasonable to want to start with a wand pre-made. In this case, the intentional design of a wand is highly discouraged. Instead, the three sections should be randomly rolled(using a Dawnism check) from the following table. This allows wands to be more spontaneous, less a tool for a single specific purpose, and prevents characters with low Dawnism modifiers starting with a wand that is too dangerous for them.

• Amazique[Earth 4|3|1, Learning 4|2|1, Wisdom 4|3|2] Special: The wand may spend 1 momentum to allow the wielder or one of the wielders allies to reroll their defence against emotion based effects, Personality: Amazique wands enjoy working with excitable, passionate wielders, which offset their own calm and passive energy. Amazique wands view most living creatures as of the same qualities and only recognise their wielders as different due to the shared experiences.
• Apple[Divination 2|2|1, Fertility 3|2|1, Food 7|2|1, Wisdom |2|1] Special: The wand can constantly track the direction and distance to a single person it is touched against. Attempting to track someone else in this fashion ends the first track., Personality: Apple wands are silly, playful and attention seeking, they enjoy helping large groups and encourage their wielder to make friends with farmers and other 'common people'.
• Ash[Future 3|2|1, Healing 3|2|1, Protection 3|2|1, Water 1||, Wisdom 2|2|1] Special: At the wand's discretion, it counts as a willpower tool using its highest affinity., Personality: Ash wands are stubborn and aggressive. Once they bond to their wielder they tend to become fervent supporters, unwilling to let the wielder back down.
• Avodire[Future 2|4|4, Protection 5||, Water 5|4|] Special: Affinities increase by one step during the firesky event., Personality: Avodire wands tire of repetition and prefer creative and imaginative wielders. Constantly generating ideas, avodire wands have a bad habit of being unable to tell the difference between good and bad ideas.
• Birch[Air 4|3|2, Resilience 2|1|, Travel 6|4|2] Special: Two options on wand creation: The wand can either teleport to the owner from any distance, and point the direction to any creature the wielder knows of. OR allows the wielder to see the safest and surest route to any destination they can see or visualise(this includes both physical locations as well as situations), Personality: Eager and friendly, Birch wands have been called 'Explorer's, 'Pioneer's, and 'Playful'. They happily chatter with the wielder, but do fall silent if asked too, making them excellent wands for beginners. Birch trees are slightly over excitable and give basewood exceptionally frequently, however spirits in these unwanted base woods do happily move into spiritless birch trees.
• Cherry[Future 3|2|1, Healing 3|2|1, Past 3|2|1, Strength 3|2|1] Special: Allows the wielder the strength to overcome challenges directly holding them back from their destiny., Personality: Honourable and respectful, Cherry trees watch over and inspire those who sit beneath them. They willingly gift their basewood to soldiers preparing for war. Cherry wands are aggressive in their pursuit of whatever goal they share with the wielder, doing everything they can to ensure the wielder achieves their goal. Cherry basewood (sword) wands are particularly dangerous as they will stand by their wielder until the wielder's death in battle. Some Cherry sword wands demand the soul fusion form of wielder contract, resulting in their becoming exceptionally powerful after several wielders, these specific individuals should be avoided.
• Chestnut[Fire 5|4|2, Learning 2||, Resilience 5|4|2] Special: When performing an investigation, the wielder knows if there is more that can be learnt from a higher check than they succeeded at., Personality: Chestnut wands like to present themselves as 'cleaners', They push for a task to be completed to the fullest extent and will usually point out lingering or small parts that could ruin the completion of the task such as letting a few pests escape or leaving a section of mold that could later take root again. Chestnut wands prefer tool shapes.
• Cocobolo[Fire 5|4|2, Protection 7|4|2] Special: Once per day when the wielder fails a stamina check, they gain 1 momentum., Personality: Cocobolo wands tend to have a somewhat arrogant or conceited streak, often very particular about their finish and what they are used for. However, a cocobolo wand with a strong connection to a wielder is often more willing than most wands to be loaned to less fortunate people for short periods.
• Elm[Earth 4|3|3, Protection 4|1|, Strength 4|4|1] Special: Wielders of Elm wands can see ghosts, Personality: Elm wands have strong, grounded personalities. They prefer to enhance the wielder rather than create more visible effects, but are known for potent destructive magic when the situation demands it.
• Gum[Earth 5|4|1, Fire 6|4|3, Wisdom 1||] Special: When targetted by hostile fire magic, the wand increases all affinity dice by 1 step for a minute. , Personality: Gum wands are friendly and grounded wands known for their patience, though when when angered their wrath prooves to be quite extensive. Gum have been known to recognise and attack Fey unprompted.
• Hazel[Air 3|3|1, Future 3|1|1, Learning 3|2|1, Past 1||, Water 2|2|1] Special: Places atop water, the wand attracts all manner of local aquatic animals., Personality: Hazel wands are calm and curious. Seemingly naive at first, Hazel wands are very aware of their capacity and like to take on a mentor role for their wielder.
• Lime[Fertility 2|1|, Food 3|2|, Learning 7|5|4] Special: When the wand's tool die rolls maximum on a Learning spell, the spell gains 2 additional pieces of information, Personality: Lime wands are forever on a quest for truth and understanding. Curious and excitable, young lime wands are constantly asking questions. Older Lime wands grow more quiet and contemplative, though no less interested in the truth. When a lime wand believes something, it is the staunchest advocate for it.
• Locust[Manipulation 3|2|1, Protection 3|2|1, Resilience 3|2|1, Strength 3|2|1] Special: Whenever casting a spell to affect a fae, the wand rolls its tool die twice and takes the higher result., Personality: Locust wands are protective and strong with difficult personalities. Often intentionally adversarial though more experienced wands do tone this back when appropriate.
• Mahogany[Earth 4|2|1, Fire 4|2|1, Resilience 4|4|2] Special: The wand rolls maximum on its tool dice in Trecero and the Zarethian outposts., Personality: Mahogany wands tend to be introspective and incredibly positive. Many make a game of attempting to understand the inner workings of others which, when confident of their understanding, leads to unprompted advice for self improvement.
• Padauk[Death 4|3|2, Fire 4|2|1, Manipulation 4|3|1] Special: Paduak wands can spend momentum to reroll its affinity die., Personality: Paduak wands are always heavier than they appear and rarely communicate with their wielders beyond the presentation of the consequences of things the wielder has done. Paduak wands seem to believe themselves a necessary force with a constant duty.
• Pear[Fertility 6|5|3, Food 4|3|1, Manipulation 1||, Protection 1||] Special:The wands wielder is immune to taste based magical effects, Personality: Pear wands love artists and enjoy appreciating the arts of others. Pear will often encourage their wielder to take up artistic endeavours, particularly sculpting or pottery, or otherwise support those who do.
• Persimmon[Fertility 4|4|3, Healing 4|1|, Protection 4|3|1] Special: Counts as medicine tool equal to its healing affinity. If used on its typical wielder by an ally, it instead counts as a medicine tool equal to its highest affinity., Personality: Persimmon wands, sometimes called 'Doctor wands', are typically nervous and overexcitable. They frequently concern themselves with their wielders health and emotional stability and can be annoying until they grow into their own confidence.
• Pine[Learning 3|2|1, Manipulation 5|4|1, Protection 2|1|, Strength 2|1|1] Special: Two abilities at once: If the wielder knows the truth of Pine wands, the wand can ensure they always appear honest, genuine, and trustworthy in conversations, and people always give them the benefit of the doubt. Alternatively(if the wielder does not know, or chooses not to use the aformentioned ability) the wand is treated as having an additional level of access in the spheres of Strength and Protection., Personality: Pine wands are devilish tricksters who pride in twisting the mind. Often the greatest target is the wielder themselves, who they often attempt to deceive and persuade into enacting the wands plans. Pine trees are just as wicked, though have little care to lie, often phrasing the truth in ways to manipulate the communicator. The intelligence and education of a pine tree would make them good teachers, if they did not wish to turn their students into criminals or paranoid hermits.
• Saple[Earth 3|2|1, Fire 3|2|1, Healing 3|2|1, Resilience 3|2|1] Special: If the wand truly trusts the wielder, all its affinity dice increase by 1 step, Personality: Saple wands have grown bitter and paranoid over time, likely due to excessive harvesting of Saple trees. Saple trees have developed into a warrior mentality that while potent, is dangerous to the wielder.
• Walnut[Food 5|4|2, Travel 4|3|2, Wisdom 3|1|] Special: The wand treats Astral projection effects as using Travel affinity., Personality: Walnut wands always feel heavier than they appear. While primarily focused on hard work and day to day tasks, walnut wands are known for period daydreams and fantasies.
• Wenge[Earth 3|2|1, Protection 3|2|1, Strength 3|2|1, Water 3|2|1] Special: The wand counts as all debate tools for interactions with Dryads., Personality: Wenge wands have a strange proclivity toward mood swings, from calm and unflinching to wild and driven. These wands respond well to meditation and generally stable wielders.
• Zebrawood[Divination 2|2|1, Earth 2|2|1, Fertility 2|1|1, Healing 2|1|, Light 2|1|1, Wisdom 2|1|] Special: A random one of the wands affinities increases by 1 step., Personality: Zebrawood wands have an extensive variety of interests and encourage learning and curiosity. Best suited for more intelligent wielders.

Spells

Air

Darkness

Shade[DC 6]: Grant a touched creature 1 minute of respite from heat as if they had been in shade.

Leech Light[DC 9]: An area of 3 hex radius from the wielder grows dark enough to not impact creatures hampered by light.

Death

Divination

Earth

Fertility

Fire

Food

Feed[DC 7]: The wand produces fruit enough for one person's meal.

Cleanse Food[DC 20]: The wand removes magical toxins with a source tier lower than the wielder's tier, from up to 6 Kilograms of food.

Purify Food[DC 5]: The wand removes nonmagical toxins from up to 6 kilograms of food.

Scurvy[DC 17]: The target contracts scurvy.

Future

Healing

Learning

Light

Manipulation

Past

Protection

Resilience

Continue[DC 6]: Succeed at a Stamina check or defence for long term travel. DC increases by 3 each time it is used in the same day.

Healing touch[DC 13]: Grants a d6 tool for resiliency to touched creature for 1 round.

Strength

Travel

Water

Cleanse Water[DC 18]: The wand removes magical toxins with a source tier lower than the wielder's tier, from up to 1 gallon of water.

Drown[DC 22]: The wand conjures water inside the lungs of the target. If the check result exceeds the target's Stamina defence, they immediately begin to drown.

Purify Water[DC 4]: The wand removes nonmagical toxins from up to 1 gallon of water.

Wavecrash[DC 25]: The wand creates a cone of water that knocks creatures in its path to the ground. The cone extends to a number of hexes equal to the wielder's tier and uses the check result as a trip attempt for all targets in the way.

Wisdom