Wizard's Twilight

Wizard's Twilight (or simply Twilight) is a unique Hermetic response to warping. Whenever exposed to powerful magic, Hermetic magi may experience a twilight episode. During twilight the character is effectively removed from the game - it cannot be harmed nor can it affect anything - while undergoing a mystic experience that may result in Twilight Scars (minor supernatural effects that remain with the character forever after the episode) and gaining or losing magical powers and insight.

The period of twilight varies, but increases with the Warping Score. At high warping, a character is liable to enter Final Twilight - that is, to never return from the twilight episode.

Community Commentary

Wizard's twilight has several aspects that may not be apparent at first sight that your troupe may want to consider.

Most in-game appearances of Wizard's Twilight are due to botched spell casting rolls in foreign auras or using raw vis. As two botch dice are needed to risk twilight, it is not a risk for normal spell casting - even in combat - in most circumstances.

While the rules do not clarify what is the maga's situation during the two minutes spent in trying to avoid twilight, it is reasonable to assume that she must be concentrating on controlling her magic and thus cannot take any actions. If her concentration is broken during combat, it may be considered as a botch in avoiding the twilight or as a failure to do so. In short - attempting to avoid twilight while in the midst of combat is extremely risky, and the maga should generally simply not resist entering twilight while in combat.

The formula for avoiding twilight implies that elder magi, with a lot of warping, will be drawn more towards twilight. It is also easier to be drawn to twilight the closer you are to the Magic Realm - the higher the local (Magical) aura is. This may be part of the reason twilight is associated with the Twilight Void in the Magic Realm. Note that this also means that it's nearly impossible to enter twilight from a high Dominion aura. Perhaps non-intuitively, Criamon magi are also drawn to twilight due to their Enigmatic Wisdom.

All this considered, the risks of wizard's twilight are rather small, often around 1%. Since magi cast lots of spells in adventure, however, they will tend to undergo a few twilight episodes during their career, often at the most frustrating times. Since laboratory experimentation is only rolled once per season, however, it is relatively safe - the chance to enter Twilight during laboratory experimentation throughout your career is rather low, as you typically do not spend that many seasons on it even if you like experimenting int he lab.

Note that giving someone two warping points is merely a level 10 base effect in the Creo Vim spell guidelines. This means that a Creo Vim specialist will be able to neutralize magi in combat fairly easily. This is rather powerful in comparison with other level 10 base effects, which is a weird consequence of the twilight mechanics.

The chance to comprehend twilight decreases as the warping score rises. This is counter-intuitive, as it means that young (unwarped) magi will return bolstered from the experience, whereas wise and elder (warped) magi will return more inept. Troupes wishing to reverse this trend can house rule the formula to include "10-Warping Score" instead of "Warping Score". Carefully consider the ramifications of such a change for both young and elder magi. In particular, note that you should not change the Twilight Time formula to "10-Warping Score", or else elder magi will never reach Final Twilight.

The time spent in twilight is random, but can be significant. Your troupe may feel that it's inappropriate for the character to be removed from the game for seven years just because the dice say so; this can significantly wreck your group's storylines and mutual enjoyment of the game. As with all Ars Magica rules, you should feel free to house rule this aspect of the game. Consider, however, that prolonged absence is only experienced at high warping scores and that it is thematically fitting to the player character's disappearance from the game into Final Twilight.

Note that high Warping Scores do not, by themselves, eliminate a character from the world. Only death or final twilight does that. So it is possible to have a character with a Warping Score of 11 or more, and plausible for very careful magi to live for centuries by avoiding twilight. The setting does seem to implicitly assume that highly warped characters will enter final twilight sooner rather than later, however, which would limit the longevity of magi. In this context, note that the effects of twilight include an additional simple die (average 5.5) of warping points, so every twilight episode cuts down on the remaining time of the magus on earth.

Finally - consider generating adventures around twilight episodes (perhaps instead of the comprehension roll). The Twilight Void is a good place to meet powerful Magical spirits that will grant the character new Mystery virtues and direct him to re-found or join their Mystery Cult, or to run into the spirits of magi lost to Final Twilight that can teach the magus new spells or the Arts. Making the twilight experience into a story involving new NPCs is a great storytelling opportunity.

Yair (talk) 08:47, 3 June 2013 (MDT)

Community Commentary

See Also