Nile Revised

Tech Axiom
20: Human mobility takes another leap with the invention and spread of airplanes,
automobiles, and motorcycles. Sonar makes submarines more effective. Radar facilitates
air travel. Relativity and Quantum Physics are developed. Automatic weaponry
improves (machine guns, submachineguns, automatic pistols). Tanks are developed.
Black and White Movies are invented, color movies remain too expensive to be practical
most of the time. Radio becomes common.
Magic Axiom
9: The Magical Axiom can now support weak magical creatures and magical materials.
The magic axiom now allows for potent apportation effects (Duration, Range, Effect
Value have a maximum value of the minimum Apportation / Knowledge total to cast the
spell +15. For example, a spell that required Apportation/Earth of 16 could have up to
Duration, Range, and Effect Value of 31.) The magic axiom now allows for substantial
alteration effects (Duration, Range, Effect Value have a maximum value of the value of
the minimum Alteration / Knowledge total to cast the spell + 5. For example, a spell that
required Alteration/Folk of 16 could have up to Duration, Range, and Effect Value of
21.) Alteration magics can now transmute substances. Further breakthroughs in magical
theory are made as magical theorems to reduce the complexity of spells are discovered. It
now takes (36 – The Appropriate Magical Skill) in time units to create spells, if no
theorems are applied. Nile Axioms
Spirit Axiom:
16: Spiritual entities begin to make regular appearances in the material world. They may
be called by the faithful, but also sometimes begin to show up without being called. The
most faithful may sometimes be able to make return visits. Atheism now begins to lose
power; they suffer a –3 penalty to their faith totals to negate other faiths' miracles.
Social Axiom:
19: A variety of corporate bodies, from businesses to labor unions to reform associations,
jockey for power in each nation, and nations jockey for power in the international arena.
Businesses increasingly spread into international operations and while many people have
only indirect links to the world economy, it now links all the major nations and many
minor ones in a web of economic interdependency. Other international associations
begin to form. The first fragile efforts are made to form transnational governments.
Fairly effective dictatorships are possible, though in the long term, they tend to be
unstable.

World Laws:
Law of Drama and Law of Morality: As the Canon
Law of Ancient Culture: This is an important aspect of what puts the Nile in Nile
Empire. It imposes the cultural frameworks of the Ancient World onto modernity,
especially that of Ancient Egypt. It especially impacts the Spirit and Magic axioms in
several ways:
First, it privileges the religions of the ancient world and the classical period (Between
say, 100 BC and 3000 BC), especially the gods of ancient Egypt. Spiritual entities of
religions originating after 100 BC (Christianity, Islam, etc) do not manifest themselves
spontaneously, and the use of Focus to produce their miracles suffers a –3 penalty. So
does Atheism. Spiritual entities of even mostly dead religions (the Greek Gods) will
revive once the Nile empire's axiom wash comes knocking at their doors.
Secondly, the Spirit Axiom of the Nile Empire will support magical creatures who fit into
ancient cultures. Dragons are in trouble, but giant crocodiles, walking mummies, or evil
magical scorpions are just fine.
Thirdly, it means that the Nile can support Magics which exceed Axiom level 9, but only
if they are tied into ancient culture. This is where the Astronomy, Engineering, and
Mathematics skills come from. Effects up to Axiom 16 can be produced with the help of
the Spirit Axiom; magic and faith tend to be melded together in the Nile.

Law of the Weird:

Most of Nile Empire society is pretty normal. The huge boost in the Spirit axiom has
changed religious life dramatically, but most people do not have a lot of direct contact
with supernatural creatures and magic, especially not in the forms dictated by the Law of
Ancient Culture. However, certain exceptional individuals and locations exist which
break the normal rules of Nile life. The law of the Weird has three major effects:
Firstly, The Nile Empire is littered with hidden kingdoms which contain radically
different cultures, such as the Kingdom of Prester John in Ethiopia, the Amazon
stronghold in Libya, and so forth, where there may be serious local axiom shifts and
magical and spiritual phenomena may be more copious.
Secondly, this world law supports the existence of Weird Science and promotes the
existence of sufficient numbers of possibility-rated mad scientists to make it a viable art.
Thirdly, this world law supports the existence of Pulp Sorcery, which is an exception to
the normal means of Nile magic (which tends to be forms of Classical Mysticism).

Pulp Sorcery:
Most Nile magic is tied to religious faith and is intertwined with forms of ancient
mysticism. However, certain rare individuals in Terra possess strange and mysterious
powers beyond the ken of mortals, derived from ancient traditions passed down master to
student for generation. Some of those sorcerors have passed into the Nile Empire in
various ways. All of them are possibility rated.
These sorcerors typically have two kind of powers. Most have one to three tricks which
they can do fairly easily and rely upon heavily. These powers are Pulp Powers which are
magical rather than pseudo-scientific in nature. A few Pulp Sorcerors have nothing but
this sort of schtick at all; most, however, buy the Pulp Sorcery Power, which gives them
access to the second form of power—ritual magics.

The Pulp Sorcery Power:

Possibility Cost: 1 per Magical Skill Available
Value: Special
Range: Special
Tech Level: 26
The Pulp Sorcery Power enables the sorceror to use one or more of the four standard
magical skills at an effective magic axiom of 15 instead of the normal nine. Each point
of adventure cost gives you one of the four skills with a +1 add; these skills can be
improved with possibility expenditure as normal. You get 12 adds of magical
knowledges with the power.
Any Pulp Sorcery spell above the normal Magic Axiom of 9 has to be cast in Ritual
Form. This means that you have to set up a magical space, then any spell with an axiom
of 10 or higher must have a cast time of one hour or more. This typically leaves evil
sorcerors vulnerable to the heroes breaking in and disrupting their evil rite. (Or good
ones vulnerable to Mobius' goons showing up at the worst possible moment). Nile
Sorcerors often possess ritual versions of spells of Axiom 9 or less as well.
To convert pre-extant spells into ritualized versions, find the difference between the
normal casting time and the Torg value of the new casting time (which must be an hour
or more). This difference can be used to reduce Difficulty or Backlash (at a one for one
ratio), increase Duration or Effect Value (one for one), or increase Range (at a cost of two
to gain one extra point of range).
To give an example:
Wan Lung, evil sorceror minion of Wu Han, decides he must amplify his charms in order
to better try to seduce the Amazon he has captured. He decides to use his Increase
Charisma ritual. This is modelled on the Increase Charisma spell (Torg rules, p. 118).
The normal Cast Time is 6 (15 seconds). His version has a casting time of 18 (one hour).
This provides 12 points to amplify other aspects of the spell. The normal duration is 14
(ten minutes). He spends 8 points pushing the duration up to 22 (four hours). He spends
the remaining 4 points pushing the effect value up to 18. The resulting ritual:
Increase Charisma Rite
Axiom: 9
Skill: Alteration/Folk 14
Backlash: 19
Difficulty: 14
Effect Value: 18
Bonus Number to: Effect
Range: Self
Duration: 22 (four hours)
Casting Time: 18 (one hour)
Manipulation: control

Wan Lung has to draw a magical circle for this spell, then rings it with candles and places
himself inside it, then spends an hour invoking dark powers and coercing them into
boosting the cleverness of his tongue. He then rolls his Alteration skill against the
Difficulty to see if the spell works and against the Backlash to see if he takes any. The
bonus number rolled is applied to the effect value, which is then compared to his
Charisma on the Power push table. His charisma increases by the push amount for four
hours.

Pulp Sorcerors who possess all four magical skills can create new rituals; others must
find teachers or ancient lore to teach them.
Astronomy, Mathematics, and Engineering

In ancient Terra, Astronomy, Mathematics, and Engineering were all developed as forms
of Skill Substitution (as per the Delphi Council Sourcebook) to enable the creation of
magical spells when the Magic Axiom was too low to support reliable Conjuration. They
have since been refined into special forms of spellcasting which allow one to create and
use spells for certain categories of magical activity.

Astronomy functions as a booster skill for Mathematics and Engineering. (Egyptian

Religion skill is used to perform astronomical calculations for religious purposes.) It is a
Mind skill. See Nile Empire Sourcebook, pp. 86-7.

Mathematics:
Mathematics handles the abstract side of Egyptian magic, while Engineering tends to
handle the practical side. What does this mean? It means that Mathematics spells
involve manipulating abstractions and concepts and ideas, rather than concrete qualities.
Basically, all Mathematics spells involve the Principles and the Essences. The Pattern,
Process, and Result of all mathematics spells must be Principles or Essences. This tends
to make them quite complex, with high difficulties and backlashes, or else with very long
cast times. The use of Astronomy helps to offset this somewhat.

Mathematics spells are not divided among Alteration, Divination, Conjuration, and
Apportation, but rather are all cast with the Mathematics skill. Arcane Knowledges are
not used during the creation of spells or required to cast them, although each spell is
tagged with the Arcane Knowledge of its Pattern, in order to determine likely side-effects
and for use in spell exclusion (a given target can only have one spell at a time on it which
has a pattern of a given knowledge as with normal spells). Backlash takes a different
form with Mathematics spells than with standard spells. If any Backlash is suffered, then
there is some sort of side-effect which is proportional to the result points of the Backlash.
It is typically related to whatever Pattern the spell is tied to.

B. Result Points Backlash result

S A minor visual show related to the spell
1-2 A tiny side-effect, noticable but not very potent
3-6 A small side-effect, somewhat weaker than the spell
7-11 A significant side-effect, roughly equal in power to the spell
12-17 A major side-effect, which may well eclipse the spell itself
18-24 A catastrophic side-effect, which dwarfs the spell
25+ Abject, horrible disaster

To give a set of examples, let us consider the side-effects of the Crocodile Legion spell, if
it malfunctions due to Backlash suffered:
B. Result Points Backlash result
S For the duration of the spell, the sorceror manifests the sigil of
Sebek the Crocodile God on his forehead.
1-2 The crocodiles summoned are restless and hungry, easily distracted
3-6 A few of the crocodiles summoned are not under the caster's
control and will wander about, obeying their instincts to find
something to eat.
7-11 In addition to the crocodiles summoned and controlled, an equal
number of crocodiles show up which aren't under control, and
instead are hungry and roam about, wrecking havoc.
12-17 In addition to any crocodiles successfully summoned, one and a
half times as many show up which are hostile to the caster and his
friends and anything else edible.
18-24 No friendly crocodiles show up except for a handful; twice as
many as he wanted show up, and almost all of the ones called are
instead hostile and full of the desire to use the caster as a tasty
meat snack.
25+ Angry crocodiles swarm up to the caster in a seemingly endless
horde which chases him for hours, trying to devour him and all that
he holds dear.

When the Mathematics skill is used to create new spells, the Mathematician can use his
Astronomy skill to configure planets in order to boost his effective skill for purposes of
the various totals in which it is used in spell creation. Each planet configured
successfully provides a +1 bonus to his skill for spell-creation purposes. All planets used
in this manner during the creation of a spell must be configured in order to use the spell
later. All of the standard Pattern Theorems can be applied in spell creation, along with the
Process Theorems.

Mathematics spells tend to have long casting times, but this is not absolute; they all
require that you can speak and have something to draw geometric figures on, though
scratching in the sand with a stick will do the trick.

When creating mathematics spells, keep in mind that such spells typically manipulate
abstractions and thoughts, rather than producing concrete, tangible results. Many are
divinatory in nature. Those with more tangible results usually involve the direct
production of the essences and principles, such as a spell to cover the land in darkness, or
one which causes people to drop dead. Spells which produce tangible things (the
Elements, Kindreds, and Mixed Knowledges) are the realm of Engineering.

Sample Mathematics Spells:

Animate Mummy
Axiom: 12
Skill: Mathematics 15
Backlash: 15
Difficulty: 12
Effect Value: 15
Bonus Number to: Duration
Range: Touch
Duration: 29 (one week)
Casting Time: 25 (one day)
Planets Necessary to Configure: Ra, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis

The process of mummification and binding of the mummy to obedience is slow and
exhausting. The result is the transformation of a corpse into an obedient mummy which
will carry out the caster's commands to the best of its dim wits. Mummies have Dexterity
15, Strength 15, Toughness of 15 + Body's Toughness in Life (Usually a 7 for an average
human), Perception 6, Mind 6, Charisma 3, Spirit 15. Mummies have no skills and do
everything unskilled.

Crocodile Legion
Axiom: 12
Skill: Mathematics 17
Backlash: 35
Difficulty: 27
Effect Value: 16
Bonus Number to: Duration
Range: 0
Duration: 18 (one hour)
Casting Time: 22 (six hours)
Planets Necessary to Configure: Ra, Isis, Horus

This spell calls every crocodile within a one mile radius, binding them to the caster's
service for one hour. It will not effect crocodiles who are hostile to the caster, and he
cannot make them act against their nature. They will not, for example, swarm out into
the desert, nor will they sit still and let themselves be killed. They will, however, risk
death to kill the caster's enemies. Eating humans is well within their nature...

It can be noted that this is a heavily difficult spell; most mathematicians, unless they are
possibility rated, can only successfully cast this spell either by waiting for rare natural
multiple conjunctions of planets or by being very skillful at configuring planets (For
example, once every 143 days, Nut and Nephthys come into conjunction, granting a +10
bonus to all mathematics, engineering, and Focus (Egyptian Religion) effects. A skill
total of 21 with Astronomy would convey the same effect to this spell. ). This is likely
for the best, as daily crocodile rampages would not be very good for civilization.

Detect Magic
Axiom: 5
Skill: Mathematics
Backlash: 13
Difficulty: 10
Effect Value: 0
Bonus Number to: Duration
Range: 6 (15 meters)
Duration: 9 (one minute)
Casting Time: 5 (ten seconds)
Planets Necessary to Configure: None

Through careful mathematical calculations, the caster empowers himself to detect

magical energies within a radius of 100 meters of himself for the duration of the spell.
This typically involves inscribing a segmented circle in the sand or a piece of papyrus;
the segments glow to indicate the direction and type of magic detected.

Engineering:
Engineering is a magical skill used to manipulate the concrete world and to facilitate the
construction of magical buildings of various kinds. Engineering spells typically work
with the Kindred, Elements, and Mixed Essences as their Pattern and Result mechanisms,
although they can also tap the Magic knowledge and use it as a Process mechanism.
They tend to be oriented around producing concrete effects: pillars of flame, magically
reinforced stone, deadly knife traps, and the like, although divination spells related to
engineering can also be produced with Engineering.

Like Mathematics, Engineering can be used to substitute for the four skills normally used
for spell-casting and spell creation. Like Mathematics, it is influenced by the sacral
geometry of the stars. And as with Mathematics, Astronomy can be used to aid in spell
construction.

Engineering magics, like Mathematics magics, suffer Backlash in the form of side-
effects. However, many Engineering magics are made permanent and thus have
permanent side-effects so long as the spell endures; such are often not always obvious at
first, until the worst possible moment to manifest (the Law of Drama at work).

Engineering magics are often designed to be made permanent (Permanent Engineering

magics suffers a –18 Bonus modifier, though. See rules for Permanent spells in the Aysle
Sourcebook), and frequently have hideously long casting times on the scale of weeks to
months to years, though some effects can be used quite quickly, especially the divination
effects.

Sample Engineering Formulas: