There are several methods by which you can create a Chinese hermetic. The first is the simplest - just create your character, choosing priority A or B for magic, depending on your character's standing (human or meta), and proclaim her a Chinese hermetic. Spellcasting ability and rules are identical to that set forth in the rules for regular hermetics. Simple, yes, but that character cannot summon elementals. Elementals can only be summoned by initiates, and the only method which they can initiate is through groups - all of which are in China. Essentially, this creates a Chinese character who acts more like a sorcery adept than a full mage. In fact, the only difference between the mo shu shi and a sorcery adept would be that an uninitiated Chinese hermetic could summon watchers. For those of you who want to create Chinese hermetics who can summon elementals, I have devised a way to do so that, granted, will create a more powerful character (after all, she will be an initiate starting out,) but will also eliminate the need for much of the game time being taken up with surreptitious trips to China whenever the character has some extra karma to spend. Just roll 1d6, and multiply it by 10 this will give you the amount of 'karma' the person creating the mage may use to initiate. This 'karma' can be used only for initiation, is spent according to group initiation rules (after all, unless you've got some variant of this going, the mage will be trained in a group setting - a monastery,) and any extra will disappear after the character has initiated appropriately, which may include ordeals (more about that later.) Rule of six applies, so watch those dice! Remember also that there are no initiates beyond fifth level, so don't let someone create a level ten Chinese hermetic, unless you have some idea how they would operate in your own campaign. Of course, all of this falls into GM discretion, so you can make it 1d6x5, drop the rule of six, do initiations according to solo rules, or whatever floats your dory. For your further edification, here is an example of character creation. Joe Runner wants to create Bofu Chen (that's Uncle Chen), an elven Chinese hermetic. He chooses priority A for metahumanity (elven), B for magic (meta-mage) and so on. After spending points and money, he rolls 1d6, and multiplies the result by 10. He rolls a five, which gives him 50 points to use for initiation. With fifty points, Bofu may initiate to level 2, using 42 of his points as per rules in the Grimoire for group initiation [(6+0) * 2=12, (6+1) 2=14, (6+2) * 2=16, 12+14+16=421. This leaves eight points. If he opts to let Bofu stand at level 2, the extra eight points just disappear. If Joe wants to try to squeeze in an extra initiation (he really wants to be able to conjure earth and great form water elementals), he can opt to take ordeals at any or all levels. However, certain ordeals are not known in China. For example, the ordeals of asceticism, deed, meditation, and oath are in common use: familiar is also used, but does not give a reduction in karma, nor does geas. Since astral quests are required for initiation, they do not reduce karmic expenditure, either. Thesis is unknown. If Joe chooses to use ordeals at all levels, he can initiate Bofu to level 3 for only 44 points (such a deal!) with six left over that disappear [(6+0) * 1.5=9, (6+1) * 1.5=10.5 or 10, (6+2) * 1.5=12, (6+3) * 1.5=13.5 or 13 (remember, according to the rules, and I quote: "Always round down." It's on page 38 in the 2nd edition Grimoire, for those of you keeping score.) 9+10+11+12=441. My advice? None, really, except that after the character has started playing, initiations get very expensive. But more on that later. Chinese sorcery adepts, should you wish to create them, would function identically to regular sorcery adepts. Chinese conjurer adepts differ in that they do have access to astral space, but only after initiation. After all, it's hard to have access to all those great form spirits if you can't go on the quests! Elemental adepts, as such, do not exist. Now comes the interesting part -- conjuring the elementals themselves. How To Win Spirits and Influence Elementals Conjuration of Oriental elementals is a somewhat complicated enterprise. First of all, good components are difficult to come by. In order to prepare a component, the mage must go through a complete summoning process of several hours or more, depending on force. For a component used to summon a great form elemental, the time is doubled. Each elemental requires a different type of material to be used in its summoning, and the material should be appropriate for the elemental type. Let's say Joe Runner wants Bofu Chen to prepare a component to conjure a metal elemental. First, he goes out and finds a chunk of iron pyrite or other metal - it doesn't matter what kind or where he found it, as long as the chunk is reasonably clean (we're tal - king physically clean, as in free of dirt, grime, etc. - innate magic has nothing to do with it. That comes in later.) After finding a nice melted tin can, he wipes off the bits of adhesive from the old label, crumbs of dirt and other nasties. After taking it home, the real fun begins. Bofu begins chanting, or meditating, or cleaning the tin bit with purified water or whatever. The thing is, he's got to do this for two hours per force rating of the intended elemental. If he wants to be able to conjure a force 5 elemental, he's got to do this for 10 hours. If he wants it to be great form, it's four hours per force rating, for a total of 20 hours of chanting, meditating, and candle burning - talk about an allnighter! At the end of all this, he rolls his conjuring dice to see if all his hard work gained a payoff. The target number is equal to the force of the spirit, as for plain- vanilla Western elementals. Joe rolls Bofu's six conjuring dice, and gets 10, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1. This means that Bofu now has a component that will allow him to later conjure a metal elemental who will do two services. If a great form elemental is desired, an immediate astral quest is taken, as per Grimoire rules. Most of the extra time that is taken in preparing the component for a great form is also preparation for the astral quest. Drain is taken after the whole ball of wax. Roll Charisma dice to determine drain: the target number is equal to the force of the intended spirit. For a great form spirit, multiply the spirit's force by 1.5, and use that as the tatget. If the mage passes out from drain, the component becomes useless - a nice doorstop if it's large and heavy enough, but otherwise no help. If this all seems a bit fuzzy to you, think of it this way. During the preparation of the component, the mage is doing most of the work of summoning the spirit. The spirit comes to him in astral, or manifest form if the conjurer is an adept and uninitiated, and decides if the mage is worthy of his servitude (using criteria only the spirit knows.) If so, the spirit agrees that the component will become a link, sort of like a spell lock, which the mage can activate later in order to 'summon' the spirit. If the spirit decides the mage is not worthy, it leaves, and the mage has effectively used up the greater part of several hours to a day for nothing. The problem with this is that the spirits are notoriously capricious, and may not even answer the 'summons' when the mage activates the link until it's too late for it to be of any use. Now that the mage has the component, what does he do with it? Let's say Bofu gets into a tight spot, and wants his elemental to help him beat up the mean ol' gogangers that are after his hide for invading their turf. In order to summon the spirit, he must first have the component on his person. He checks his pocket, and lo and behold, the lump of slagged tin is there. He cradles it in his palm, and quietly begs the elemental to come out and save his butt. To do this, he rolls his Charisma dice, with a target equal to half the spirit's force, rounding down, with a minimum of two. He must get at least one success for each point of force the spirit has in order for the spirit to come out, and each roll of the Charisma dice equals one minute of time passing. Joe rolls Bofu's Charisma dice (a measly three), with a target of 2 (spirit force is 5, divided by 2 is 2.5, rounded down is two.) This is not an actual summoning, and no drain is taken here - this is simply a representation of the mage's persuasive powers in getting the spirit to do what he wants. He gets 6, 4, and 2, but he still needs two more successes in order to get the force 5 metal elemental to come out and play. The gangers, laugh and toss jeers at the hapless mage in the midst of what appears to be a nervous breakdown as he begs a piece of melted tin to help him. Another minute of frantic cajoling results in 6, 5, 2, the component link slags down and disintegrates, and the spirit deigns to appear, scaring the bejesus out of the gangers, who never saw a pile of metal with legs before. For great form elementals, it's even more difficult. Instead of dividing the force by two, the force of the spirit is the target, and the mage still needs to get a number of successes equal to the spirit's force. If the mage is on the receiving end of an abject failure, that is, a roll entirely consisting of ones, a suitable catastrophe could happen at GM's discretion, anything from the component link being completely destroyed to the elemental coming out and aiding the enemy - and an offended spirit is nothing to sneeze at. As you could probably imagine, those with low Charisma ratings will have a harder time convincing their new friends to come out than those who have high ones. Once the mage can get the elemental to come out once, the component link disappears, and the spirit functions as a regular elemental. These component links don't last forever if the elemental goes unsummoned, though. It may very well get impatient, waiting for the mage to pull out the bit of wood or vial of water and use the old Blar. ney. So the component links have a 'shelf life' or an 'expiration date,' if you prefer. Suffice it to say that the link lasts a time equal to the spirit's force rating in weeks, multiplied by the mage's Charisma. Since Bofu's Charisma is 3, he can expect to have his component link for the force 5 metal elemental to last for 15 weeks (5 * 3 = 15). If the spirit was a force 3, he would only have nine weeks. Lower force spirits have lower intelligence, and therefore less patience. For great form spirits, divide the result by two, rounding down. If Bofu's metal elemental had been a great form spirit, the component link would only last for seven weeks (15/2=7.5=7). Of course, all of this begs the question what can these elementals do besides scare the drek out of hostile gangers? Read on, MacDuff! INITIATION CHART SASHES (as mentioned by Parsifal) No level Watchers Turtle, white Level 0 Wood Tiger, yellow Level 1 Metal, Great Wood One-toed dragon, red Level 2 Water, Great Metal Two-toed dragon, green Level 3 Earth, Great Water Three-toed dragon, blue Level 4 Fire, Great Earth Four-toed dragon, purple Level 5 Great Fire Five-toed ('Imperial') dragon, black More Chinese Hermetic Magic Introduction Rules - So You Want To Be A Chinese Hermetic... The Care and Feeding of Oriental Elementals Back to Shadis #20 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com