To expand on my last post, here are some additional rules for casting “realm spells”, spells greater in scope than what a magic user might cast while on an adventure. The assumptions are based on Phlox’s The Realm, but dive back into it’s DNA to find inspiration from TSR’s Birthright setting.
Esoteric Holdings
Esoteric holdings are those locations where mana, the fuel for a wizard’s wildest delights, is accessible in plenty. Esoteric holdings draw their energy from a source, an out of the way corner of the untamed world. Civilization repulses and destroys mana. So the Dark Forest may create mana that leaks out into nearby provinces. Wizards who all build esoteric holdings around the same source risk being in competition for the same power.
In addition to their other benefits, Esoteric holdings give +1 Dominion Die per level. DD can only be used by those with MD. DD return to your pool on the summer and winter solstices.
Law and Trade holdings cannot exceed the level of the province they are in. The opposite is true for esoteric holdings, they thrive in unpopulated places.
In plains and other lands well suited to civilization, the maximum esoteric holding level is 4 - province level. DD return when they roll a 1.
In hills and other rugged terrain, maximum level is 5 - province level. DD return on a 1 or a 2.
In mountains, deep woods, and other uncultivateable lands, maximum level is 6 - province level. DD return on a 1-3
DD return on a +1 in 6 if you find a way to commune directly with the heart of the source and form a bond with it. Only one person may be in communion with the heart of the source at any given time.
You cast realm spells from provinces where you have an esoteric holding. Usually, you may only use DD from that holding, but if you build a ley line connecting 2 or more esoteric holdings you control, you may access all connected DD.
Dooms are triggered by DD in exactly the same way as MD. For mishaps, use this table:
DD do not return to your pool at the next solstice.
Lose 1d4 weeks (4s explode) to dissociated ranting megalomania, paranoia, and recriminations.
Random mutation for 1d6 months, then save. Permanent if you fail.
Lose 1 DD for 1 year.
Mana Leak. Reduce [sum] by realm spells cast at this source holding by 2 for one year.
Mana Burn. For one year, take [dice] damage whenever you cast spells, and any damage you take from magic is not reduced by your will.
Realm Spell List
For inspiration, I went to the Birthright spell list. Although there is a lot of good material there, it is too focused on what you are targeting with the realm spell, and not focused enough on what is happening in fiction. The Raze spell devastates fortifications, but it can’t do anything else. If it’s causing a massive fire, shouldn’t you be able to use it against enemy armies and so forth? Eh? I’ve tried to remedy that in this spell list.
30 Realm Spells
Alchemy: Turn base metals into gold. Requires a 50 gold alchemy lab, but ongoing costs are trivial. Gain [sum] x 10 gold.
Dispel Realm Magic: Suppress effect of realm magic in a province by [dice] and [sum]. You may reduce your [dice] by 1 to affect an additional province, and your sum by 1/province distant (so -0 in your own province, -2 sum in a province 2 spaces away, etc). Duration [dice] seasons.
Scry: for the next [sum] weeks, covertly observe anywhere from the open sky within a range of [dice] provinces. If you have a piece of a target, like a lock of hair or a flagstone, you may scry them at any range and at a more intimate vantage point
Weather Control: For the next [dice] months, control the weather in the province, potentially slowing armies to a crawl with horrific storms or causing crop failure with blizzards out of season.
Conflagration: for [dice] minutes, [sum] balls of fire rain down from the sky within a 200 ft radius from a point you can see. Fortifications are reduced by [dice] levels. Military units take 6 damage from each fireball that falls on them and likely must check morale and flee. Individuals take d6 damage from each fireball, save for half. This is mundane fire, so anything that is ignitable ignites as normal.
Pestilence: Reduce the level of this province by 1. The plague spreads to up to [dice]-1 additional provinces over time. A province cannot be effected by Pestilence again for [lowest] seasons. Dispel Realm Magic and Bless Land can spare provinces from the plague.
Bless Land: Good fortune settles on the people. The next tax roll of a province within [dice] provinces is multiplied by 225 instead of 200. Unrest in the province decreases by [highest-lowest] for the next year. Cancels Blight.
Blight: Woe settles on the people. The next tax roll of a province within [dice] provinces is multiplied by 175 instead of 200. Unrest in the province increases by [highest-lowest] for the next year. Cancels Bless Land.
Royal Facade: Change the appearance of up to [sum] buildings or [dice] settlements within the province for [sum] seasons, or for one building permanently if cast with 4 MD. If changing how stately and appealing they seem (the traditional use of this spell), increase or decrease the level of councils and events here by [dice] steps. (So a meager event would become an elegant one with a 2 MD Royal Facade). It’s not possible to make something disappear with this spell, or to greatly alter the apparent size, so a sprawling palace couldn’t disappear, but it could be disguised as a hill.
Instill Ardor: An army is filled with confidence and valor. [dice] units increase their morale by [sum] for the length of a battle. They gain +1 to hit and -1 AC.
Stronghold: Create a level [sum] stronghold that appears over the course of 10 seconds and lasts for [dice] seasons. The architecture and layout reflects the mind of the caster. You do not know the precise floor plan, but it is intuitive for you to navigate. You may make the strongholds permanent by increasing your age by 10 years and placing 50 gold of pearls around the perimeter before casting the spell.
Warding: Create a wall of force starting in this province preventing travel for creatures of [sum] HD or less along [dice] connected borders lasting for [sum] months.
Legion of the Dead: Can only be cast at the sites of great battles and other gathering places of the dead. Summon [sum] x20 zombie and animate skeleton soldiers to serve your banner. Mostly mindless, they maintain the habits and prejudices they had in life. About 10% wander off each season.
Sunder Ley Line: The owner of a ley line within [dice] provinces must save or it is destroyed and they take [highest] damage.
Ley Trap: For the next [dice] seasons, anyone else who attempts to access the mana source this province takes its power from takes [sum] damage, save for half.
Fly: Invest a dominion die into an object (broomstick, shoes). For as long as it is invested, it flies where you command with enough force to quickly carry you and a typical load with grace and precision.
Traveling: Invest a dominion die into two specially prepared portals costing at least 100 gold each. No matter how far apart they are, one may pass between them.
Fasten Sephirah: Requires a ritual henge set up at the heart of a source. Invest any number of DD into the Henge. You gain that many MD that do not return to your pool when used. For as long as any of these extra MD remain, you count as being in communion with the heart of the source.
Earthquake: cause the ground to shake with a 5+[dice] magnitude earthquake, momentarily shaking nearby armies, and damaging structures. Magnitude 7 earthquakes damage holdings, magnitude 8 earthquakes also damage provinces through mass casualties. Magnitude 10 is perhaps larger than the largest true earthquake earth has ever had. The asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs caused several Magnitude 11 earthquakes.
Summon Shayin: summon [dice]x20 units of Shayin warriors from their home dimension. For every 50 soldiers, they are lead by a Template B Warlord captain. They serve for 6 months and demand to be paid up front with 7 gold’s worth of lead each. They are equipped with large spears, lamellar armor, and round shields. They are disciplined and accustomed to serving under maniacal wizards.
Nightmare: crush a ritual horn costing 50 gold into dust to cause a nightmarish labyrinth to rise up from the ground anywhere you can see, perfectly square with an area of up to 500’ x [dice]. On average, it takes [sum]x10 minutes for people to find their way out, and they will have taken [highest] damage. Inside is filled with an oppressive darkness, dire bats, creeps who demand to eat you if you can’t answer their riddles, that kind of thing.
Eye of the Tyrant: Fix a sigil of an eye in a high place and invest a dominion die. You can see through it and notice anything that visually occurs within [sum] x 100’ ft. For each die beyond the first, add one bonus: increase the range x10, see invisible, you may talk telepathically with any your Eye can see, they may speak telepathically with you, see through terrain and structures within range. The first die is invested, but any further dice are spent as normal.
Mage’s Disjunction: destabilize magic in the province for [dice] seasons. At 1 DD, MD only return on a 1-2. At 2, roll twice for mishaps and take the worse result. At 3, MD only return on a 1. At 4, DD are 1-in-6 less likely to return. At 5 and higher, spellcasters take [dice] damage when they cast a spell. (These effects accumulate).
Perfect Courier: summon [highest] pairs of Perfect Couriers to carry messages back and forth, allowing you to speak privately with [highest] other rulers for 6 months. Perfect Couriers have a build half human and half avian, and they glide across the ground as if it were made of ice. They move as fast as a galloping horse, but never tire. They are difficult to distract from their duty, but they have a noted love of building up speed sliding down hill, hitting a jump, and gliding for as far as they can.
Weave Bricks: Combine base clay with strands of arcane power. Produce [sum] x 1000 slots of Woven Bricks at the cost of [sum] x 25 gold. 1000 slots of Woven Bricks makes one level of holding indestructible to mundane means, and the bricks resist [dice] magical attempts to destroy the building.
Form Elements: Pour the power of your mana into personified natural forms. Temporarily reduce your esoteric holding by up to [dice] (holding level can not be reduced below 0) to create [sum]x5 HD 2 elementals loyal to your command. These elementals take an an appropriate form for the terrain of your source holding, rock elementals for a mountain redoubt, etc. If they are all destroyed, or if you command them to return to the source, your esoteric holding level returns to normal at the start of the next solstice.
Celestial Intercession: (With thanks to Loch) Requires an object that belonged to an otherworldly creature, like an angel’s sword, or a fairy’s ballet shoes. Summon a creature of that kind to parley with, with a +[dice]-2 modifier to the reaction roll. Offerings can increase the roll as well. It will negotiate with those in its domain to do you a favor in exchange for appropriate favors and promises.
Become Storm: (Thanks to Loch) For [dice] weeks turn into a swirling storm for as long as you are outside. You may travel [highest]/2, minimum 1, provinces/week in that time.
Turn Peasants: (Thanks to Primeumaton) For the rest of the season, peasants must save to approach you. Anyone not born to a title, or with real capital less than [sum]x5 gold counts as a “peasant”. This works on most clergy, talking animals, barbarians outside of a feudal system, hedge knights, and hedge witches in addition to typical commoners.
Viska’s Byway: Cover a cobblestone with ash from a sacrifice of 20 gold of oxen. Any group that carries this cobblestone at its head forms a fully fledged highway over all terrain for [dice] provinces, as wide as [sum] men marching abreast.
Conclusion
There is an obvious challenge inherent in adding a second scale of magic. If realm spells are bigger and better than typical spells, they risk making the normal spell lists of magic-users feel trite and useless. But if they are not sufficiently grand, they end up being an expensive let down. For this reason, realm spells should solve different problems than typical spells. They should run on a different economy, requiring time and other resources too scarce to be useful in a dungeoncrawl setting, but part and parcel to domain play.
Wizards have a serious funding issue. All the best esoteric holdings will be in places that cannot generate much revenue. As a result, they’ll either have to split their time between infrastructure and arcana, make a patronage agreement with other rulers, or else resort to some adventure or ploy.
Let me know if you post any of your own domain spells and I'll link it here so there can be a consolidated resource.
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