"There are no words to describe what it is like to wield the power of the will: to see the world as an extension of one’s own mind; to shape fantastical dreams and wondrous imaginings into existence. Truly the Gods blessed us, for though we wield but a fraction of their power there is virtually nothing we cannot do when we imagine it."

- St. Dominika the Accursed, writing before the breaking

"For all their power, for all the harm they are capable of inflicting, they are pathetic creatures. Despised, exiled and turned from the path of the Three. Their corrupt powers wrestle constantly with them, so much so that they are left devoid of any real skill or talent..."

"...Even those abilities which are theirs to wield are but a pale imitation of the might of the Trinity; incapable of true benevolent creation theirs is the way of chaos and destruction..."

"...Take away a Willworker’s magic and they are one and all weak and flawed. That is how we bring them to justice for when they sleep alone and unprotected we strike and for all their vaunted power they die like mortal men, and wield swords like children."

- Vornus Telandre, High-Inquisitor of the Misericorde

"A book girl!? A book!? Do you think this is some sort of school?"

"Bu..but...Mistress..."

"There are no books of Sorcery girl. The power of the will is as individual as the mind that wields it. I could no more teach you the ways of magic with a book than I could with an abacus."

"*Sob* Then how am I ever to learn? I cannot make it work! I don't understand!"

"You must feel it child. Let it flow from deep within you. You must learn that what is and what can be are one and the same and that all that stands between them is the veil of thought. Now calm yourself we have tried enough for today. Go and rest..."

- High Saint Magdalene speaking to her ward in the Magisterium's stronghold of Khaluf Mara, long before the breaking.

When wielded by an adept Sorcery is capable of wondrous feats of creation; fantastical lifeforms, impossible structures and wellsprings of healing can all be forced into being. Conversely in the hands of those who do not respect its power, or care not for the terrible cost, Sorcery can unleash destruction on a cataclysmic scale.

It is a power that mortal men find hard to comes to term with for it removes certainty from the world. Rare is the fledgling Sorcerer that has not battled with insanity as they realise that all that stops their most terrible nightmares from being manifested is their continual concentration, a concentration they must never let slip.

This constant struggle against the power of their own Will means that Sorcerers, even ones who are yet to awaken their power, are rarely able to excel in other spheres of human endeavour no matter how hard they strive; it is difficult to read a book when the tales inside are a mere thought away from existence or to work a forge with the knowledge that metal need not be shaped when its nature can be changed.

This inability to excel in mundane skills means that Sorcerers are almost entirely dependent upon their magic and if they find something their Sorcery cannot accomplish, and there are many such things, they may be forced to confront the truth: that despite all their vaunted power they are deeply flawed individuals.

Sorcery itself is remarkably simple in that there are no words of power or arcane symbols to learn. There is only the Sorcerer's own mind and their ability to master it. Any act of Sorcery has two key components: the Will and the Concept.

The force of the Will is the source of every Sorcerer's power and at its most fundamental level is the ability to impose ones thoughts upon reality, forcing into existence almost anything that can be imagined.

As a Sorcerer masters their will so they are better able to impose these imaginings upon reality allowing them to achieve greater effects that affect the world on a grander scale. As the Sorcerer learns to harness their Will they are said to progress through the Veils of Understanding, a crude but reliable indicator of their power.

A concept is the mental image that the Sorcerer wishes to manifest with their Will. The Sorcerer will always have a basic conceptualisation of their final goal but the better the understanding of the nature of what they wish to accomplish the more likely they are to succeed.

Often this is very simple; it's easy to imagine something exploding, melting or catching fire. However when attempting more intricate manipulations of reality, those that involve creation as opposed to destruction, the Sorcerer must strive to understand the intrinsic nature of what they wish to do if they wish to express their power to its greatest extent.

For instance, a Sorcerer who wishes to create a fantastical clockwork timekeeping device would find it facile to create something that looked like a clock with hands that moved across a face driven by the power of the Will. However to create a clock whose hands were driven by a working clockwork mechanism the Sorcerer would need to be able to conceptualise every detail of that mechanism that he wished to create, something that would require understanding of such mechanisms and that might only be achieved through detailed study or training in horology.

"You think you mean anything to me? You think your armies matter? Your swords!?"

"No. For now you face me and all the power of my Will!"

- Lord Ianar, Sorcerer King of the Black Valley Tower shortly before his downfall at the hands of the forces of the […] Empire (the name of the empire has been lost to history and the Disjunction)

Due to the personal nature of Sorcery magical ability is impossible to quantify in a meaningful way, but traditionally Sorcerers have judged each other’s relative standing through mastery of the Veils that represent the extent to which a Sorcerer has learnt to focus their own will. The Veils themselves are at best rough guides to the power at a Sorcerer's command and fundamentally no-one, not even the Sorcerer themself, knows what a Sorcerer can accomplish until they attempt it.

As a vague guide the Veils represent both the magnitude of effect that the Sorcerer can accomplish and the area over which that effect can be manifested. A Sorcerer who has just awoken to their power can preform minor magics to themselves or things in very close proximity, whereas a master Sorcerer can fundamentally alter the nature of reality on a vast scale.

The Sorcerer can change reality on a personal scale affecting themselves or at most one other individual. At this level the will of the Sorcerer is limited by concepts that are simple such as 'push' or 'pull', resulting in telekinesis; 'shatter', which might blow apart a door; 'burn', which could could cause something to burst into flame.

The Sorcerer can alter reality on a small scale creating changes in the area around them or affecting at most a handful of other people. The concepts that their Will can manifest are more complex and become more than just simple ideas. These might include: projection of a ball of searing fire, resulting in an explosion; delicate manipulation of forces, allowing them to fly freely; projection of intricate mental pictures, creating illusions to baffle or confuse.

The Sorcerer's mastery of their own mind allows detailed imaginings to be brought into being and can affect the world around their source on a much larger scale, approximately the size of a village or a cohort of men. The Sorcerer can imagine complex events and structures: the transposition of objects and locations, allowing for teleportation; the intricacies of the natural world, allowing storms or small earthquakes to be created.

Though it takes deep concentration direct manifestation of the Will also becomes possible allowing the Sorcerer to force things into existence, though what can be created depends greatly on its complexity and the sorcerer's conceptualisation of their goal.

At this level of power only high ranking members of the Church or other Sorcerers would dare attempt to confront a Sorcerer head-on. Anyone else, even a cadre of trained men, would stand little chance against the direct power of the Sorcerer's Will.

Sorcerers who have mastered this Veil can send forth their Will against cities or armies and there is little mundane men can do to oppose them directly.

They need not be destructive however; their ability to finely manipulate reality is such that they can attempt to alter extremely complex systems; such as living ones. With great concentration a Sorcerer could Will a new species of flower into existence or manipulate flesh and blood to heal a mortal would. They are still limited by the complexity of what they attempt however; their flower might never wither or wilt and be impossibly beautiful but to endow it all the properties of a natural flower such as the ability to seed or follow the sun would be extremely hard for the Sorcerer for they would have to understand the nature of flowers and be able to conceptualise this.

The Sorcerer has mastered their own Will and the barriers between what is and what can be imagined are almost completely gone. Complex ideas can be manifested more easily and even larger areas can be affected.

Terrible works of devastation may be wrought; gigantic magical storms called up to ravage nations, islands sunk beneath the waves, stars plucked from the sky or people removed from existence as if they had never been. Conversely awesome acts of creation may be attempted; impossible cities of arcane structure made to rise above the world, mythical beasts called forth from the imagination, pandemics scourged from the flesh of the multitudes or artefacts of immense power willed into being.

"Before I lost conciousness I saw them; one wreathed in silver fire, the other ensnarled in a miasma of darkness; their power battering into each other as the temple crumbled around them..."

-Recollections of Bernard D'Strel, only survivor of the destruction of the Equinox Temple

When a Sorcerer unleashes their power it is intrinsically imprinted with the flavour of the Sorcerer's mind having an aesthetic unique to them. For some their magic manifests as colourful streams of liquid fire, for others as crackling auras of lightning, swirling maelstroms of quicksilver, luminous pink bubbles or writhing unnatural shadows.

Whatever aesthetic their Sorcery takes it is not subtle; for minor acts of magic the Sorcerer's eyes may burn with whatever their aesthetic dictates, whereas for the greatest feats of Will-working the Sorcerer may be lost within a maelstrom of light and sound. Either way it is extremely obvious and everyone around the Sorcerer will be well aware they are working magic, indeed it is these tell-tale signs the Church trains its assassins to search for when hunting Sorcerers.

A Sorcerer may attempt, with effort, to conceal the fact they are Will-working by masking their aesthetic, however such precise control is extraordinarily taxing and seriously limits the magnitude of effect that can be achieved while attempting to do this.

"Why won't you love me!?"

- Jedward Steno, to his childhood sweetheart shortly before immolating himself, his love and much of the surrounding countryside about the Pleasant River

For all its possibility and potential Sorcery is limited by the mind that wields it, to what that mind can understand and stand against. While much of what a Sorcerer can accomplish is limited to what they can conceptualise there are some specific applications of Sorcery that few Sorcerers, even masters, would even attempt.

Manipulation of the mind: even the greatest Sorcerer's Will is not intrinsically stronger than any other individuals, they have just learnt to focus theirs to enact changes in the nature of reality. As such controlling the mind of other sentient creatures is immensely difficult and would be extraordinarily unsubtle for the Will they sought to dominate would fight the invader every step of the way.

Creation of Will: though Sorcerers have created many fantastical creatures over the eons these are almost always animated by the Sorcerers own Will. The making of an independently sentient creature is a thing of legend even among Sorcerers for though adepts have been know to move their Will about or even divide it, rarely in the annals of magic has any Sorcerer ever claimed to have created an entirely new Will.

Divination: Sorcery flows entirely from the mind of the Sorcerer. As such divination is completely impossible; for how could a Sorcerer conceive of knowledge they did not already know? A Sorcerer might create a window in the world to observe events far away but they would still need to look through it themselves to learn anything and of course would need to know where to look and what they were looking for in the first place.

A Mortal mind: For all their power Sorcerers are still mortal and must eat, sleep and breathe. Wielding the Will is tiring and even the greatest Arch-Sorcerer must rest after calling forth their power. It is at these times that the Sorcerer is most vulnerable to their enemies and their enemies likely know this.

A Sorcerers power can be opposed both by other Sorcerers and the faith of some members of the Church.

When two Sorcerers fight the outcome depends primarily on which Veil they have both passed. Should one of them have mastered a higher Veil they will inevitably triumph, their skill the greater. However should both opponents be equally adept it will be extraordinarily hard for either to gain the upper hand and victory will require outside interference, knowledge of some specific weakness or a very good plan. Whoever wins it is the world around them that shall suffer the most for in a battle of the Wills the power of Sorcery becomes incredibly hard to control and can unleash untold devastation on the surrounding area.

Sorcerers will also defend themselves reflexively from any surprise attack with the power of the Will, setting their own Will against the assailant's. This means that if a Sorcerer unleashes their power against an area that contains another Sorcerer that Sorcerer will counter the attack against them, not necessarily protecting the entire target area but certainly their immediate vicinity.

As well as other Will Workers Sorcerers must also fear the agents of the Church who are well versed in the ways of hunting and eliminating magic users and who seem to have some ability to resist the might of the Will not grounded in Sorcery.

Sorcerers who have passed beyond the third veil are able to imagine things into existence that possess entirely unnatural properties. Metals that no forge can melt, glass that absorbs all light or stone as dense as air. Furthermore they can shape these things into whatever form they can conceive. Once created these things continue to exist and may be entirely forgotten by the Sorcerer.

Continual magical effects, such as the burning blade of a magical sword or the force that levitates a floating castle, require the Sorcerer to actively maintain the magic through force of Will. If the Sorcerer ceases to concentrate upon them, is incapacitated or killed then the magic fails and flame goes and the castle falls.

If you play a Sorcerer the most important thing to realise is that you do not necessarily know what you can accomplish when you attempt a feat of Sorcery until you try it, though hopefully you'll begin to understand the extent of your powers as the game progresses. The Veils are designed to act as a vague guide but in no way represent the breadth of what you can attempt and we encourage you to experiment and remember that you live in a world where there are no books of magic to teach your character how Sorcery works.

Hence when you turnsheet to do something with your magic, unless you are opposed, it will always work but the extent to which it succeeds will depend on the complexity of what you are trying and how convincing your in character conceptualisation is.

This also means that questions to the GM team along the lines of “Can I do X?” will likely be met with the response: “Both in character and out of character you really aren't sure”.

You can use Sorcery in any/all of your three actions however its use is tiring and so using it more regularly will likely decrease it effects, though by how much can only be learned by experience. The Epic action will always take priority and if it is very strenuous, may make any Sorcery used in the mundane actions less effective but won't ever prevent its use outright.

As a Sorcerer you do not have to perform specific acts, you can also perform general actions with magic. Hence you can turnsheet to help general X defeat army Y in which case you will float above the battlefield raining down destruction, or you could be more specific and turnsheet to open up a fissure in the earth to swallow army Y.

When you turnsheet to preform magic it is very important that you tell us what you want to do and why you think your character understands and can conceptualise what they are attempting. For some works of magic (mostly destructive ones) no in depth conceptualisation is needed, blowing something up is easy to imagine, whereas for others the concept is vital for achieving what you're aiming for.

A Sorcerer who has reached the fourth veil wishes to defeat their nemesis “Lord Klangfarben the Atonal” by dropping a grand piano the size of a castle on his head, for this they use an Epic action.

In order to manifest a grand piano the Sorcerer would need to understand how one worked. If they had made no effort to learn about these instruments what they manifested would look like a grand piano but would contain none of the functional components hence when it landed on the unfortunate Klangfarben it would not make the pleasing cacophony associated with falling pianos. However this Sorcerer has taken time (i.e. an epic action) to learn about the workings of pianos, by reading a book on their creation and better yet has spent time talking to a master instrument craftsman, hence the piano they create is fully functional and emits a satisfyingly discordance when it ends Lord Klangfarben's wicked reign.

Lord Klangfarben defeated, the Sorcerer can teleport away as part of the same action. They can use their remaining Epic actions to preform some other works of magic, but manifesting such a large piano was taxing so they might not be able to accomplish all they wanted with these other actions, especially if they are ambitious.

Sorcerers can improve their mastery of Will-working by passing through higher Veils of understanding. To do this they must use their Sorcery during a turn (to represent practice) and spend their 1CP to move to the next Veil.

We encourage you to think carefully about playing a Sorcerer. While they have the potential to wield great power by the end of game at the start of the game they will be hated and hunted and as such much more likely to die than other characters.

The relevance and meaning of power is an important theme of the game. Do not assume that vast Sorcerous power will make you respected or cared about. In a world that is ending will people really care about your pillars of fire, especially when other people can make them?

Sorcerers lack any developed skills bar their magic and magic is not the solution to every problem. Getting help from other characters will be very important because there are some things that your magic will not be able to accomplish.

If you do play a Sorcerer we expect your character to be based around the idea that Sorcery is as much a curse as blessing. In setting Sorcerers are deeply flawed individuals with few other skills and who have grown up struggling with powers “man was not meant to wield” and as a result have been left ostracised and confused.