Shadow Magic

The spiteful Sun glares down on us all with he's aloof and amused smile. He is so great that he's power is felt merely from he's presence. The reason why he's rays radiate into arms is because everything the Sun sees, the Sun controls. For such a being, the two are identical. However, this isn't complete omnipresence, because where the sunlight doesn't touch, the sun holds no domain. Within each shadow is an unsupervised zone out of the grasp the celestial spheres but too small and isolated for chthonic powers to claim. Once you know this you can use this loophole, you can leverage it for your self, and once you've practiced that long enought, you can control it, and if you can control it that you can be Onto A GOD... within an area between a few to 60 feet demanding on time of day and if the weather allows.

This is intended as a replacement for the archetype of the fantasy wizard for my yet unnamed setting. Well, partially, there are are other magical arts that I have yet to write up that are meant to be complimentary to this one, and Mancy exists in the setting as it's own thing. Spell ferrets still exist in the world. It will make sense when I write all the various things out and organise them properly.

This was made with Into the Odd in mind, with my own leveling system that I have haven't gotten to writing down yet, but will soon. I might trash that idea in the end. Any way.

Shadow Caster:

When you become a Shadow Caster you start with Domain, Burn Essence and One of the 3 Shadow Arts.

Domain:

You have subtly control over what is in you're shadow, allowing you to cause minor spooky stuff to happen inside it at will. If you're shadow overlaps with a large unlit area, the energy disperses making you're Domain not work and causing all Shadow Arts preformed to cause vague spooky stuff instead.
*Any action or attack against you from within you're shadow has disadvantage or is deprived respectfully.
*You get advantage against anyone within you're shadow.
*If someone dies within you're shadow, than their spirit is stuck in there and has the ability to cause spooky stuff and warp the shape of the shadow. If you're shadow overlaps with an unlit area, spirits can escape from it, should they want to.
*Arcanum and Spells have their range extended as far and wide as you're shadow. Within reason.

Burn Essence: 

You can consume parts of you're self by spending hit points or any attribute points to power you're magic according to the table below. Burning yourself causes you to age rapidly and shrivel up.  You can burn more essence than than the amount listed on the table to increase the power of a casting. You can also burn essence without a goal to make intense spooky shit happen.

	Duration	Existence	Scope	Power
Concentration	As long as you Focus on it	Will vanish if seen by the sun.	Size of head.	Instantly lighting  a Candle
1 Hp Burned	To the next Sunset or Sunrise	Will vanish if convinced it doesn't exist	Half of a Person	Instantly lighting a Campfire
1 Attribute Burned	Indefinite	Will vanish if convinced it doesn't exist	Size of a Person	Instantly setting a Wagon on Fire
5 Attribute Burned	Permanent.	It's Real now. Edicts become part of a person's soul.	Anything that is in you're shadow	Instantly incinerating  a Wagon

Shadow Arts:

Edict: 

You can give up to 7 word command to something or someone within you're shadow. They are under the effect of the Edict for a Duration. Edicts has Existence equal to their Duration. Normal creatures get will saves, erratic ones like undead, demons, shapeshifters, wizards and emotionally distressed people don't. Inanimate objects don't get a save, they either follow Edicts or don't depending on Scope.

Conjuring: 

You can create illusions, phantasms and glamours within you're shadow. They act exactly like real thing, except that they are limited by Existence and Duration. You can conjure not particularly intelligent creatures, disguises that cover the surface of something with a different surface and so forth.

Enchantment: 

You can infuse part of you're self into an object or a shadow. The enchantment has Duration and Power while effecting something with Scope. It either allows you to create a random arcanum using something like the Maze Rats spell generator or allows you to place some function of what you can do into an object. Like losing sight in one eye to allow you to see through a brick or giving up speech to make a statue speak. The function will return to you once the duration is up. Enchantments that burn attribute points are downtime activities.

Design Intent:

If you've read my blog, you'd already know that I'm somewhat hung-up on ideas of magic and technology and natural rules of the world. The intention with this system is that it's what comes about as a result of the natural laws of the fictional universe I'm making. The rules that this class relies on are eluded to in the flavor intro and mechanical rules but directly spelled out. Hopefully they don't need to be directly spelled out, as they are fairly intuitive and grokkable.
Another intention of this design is to make environmental conditions an important part of the strategy. It matters for a caster if the it's sunny, what time of day it is and so on. If the conditions are just perfect than you can put very strong foes to their knees, but if they are slightly off than you can easily get screwed, so ambushes and Combat As War is the best way to go, if the plan does fail you can go nuclear by burning you're self entirely. Effective casters also need teamwork to be most effective, someone to carry and angle the torch, meatshields that can protect them after they burned essence to pull off some big effect and so on. Arrogant and uncareful casters can easily be defeated by a foe that's clever or lucky and doesn't have any mojo. To sum it up, I want knives in the back to really cramp these wizard's styles, both in when the knife holder is a player and an NPC.
Edicts are meant to make the caster intimidating and domineering presences when they can catch someone.
The purpose of having those that die in you're shadow getting stuck in your shadow is twofold. First is to give a consequence to commanding someone to commit suicide that is more interesting than denying the option, because if the ghost of someone you killed is stuck in you're shadow, they are not going to mess with you're magic and that's something you'll have to deal with. The second is it allows for the trope of "shadow does something else than the body" without just giving that ability to the player, because that would lessen the need for wacky lamp contraptions that change lighting angles. You can control you're shadow indirectly if kill a dog within you're shadow, than train the ex-dog to follow you're commands to stretch and warp in whatever way you need. But a dog needs treats to be trained, but what do you feed a ghost dog? Why you burn hit points for it of course, what could go wrong! Thus you can have both crazy lamp contraptions and casters sicing commanding their shadows to do things, and both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Conjurings being vanishible by convincing them they don't exist was stolen from Martin O, for the reason that I find the idea quite amusing and having unsettling implications when it's also the same power that allows you to create real things from mid air. It supports the theme of having a blurred line between reality and artifice, sorcerer and charlatan which I am partial to.

World Building Implications and Tangents

• Wizards wear tall pointy hats and bellowing cloaks to have longer shadows.
• Wizards have towers for the same purpose. Enchanting a tower in it's construction will make it on some level a part of the wizard.
• Wizard towers take a lot of money to build, as such they are usually implements of war and are feared as such.
• If a wizard dies than the expensive expensive tower will be useless. This is solved by a ritual where a wizard's name and beard are passed down to an apprentice. The Beards of the greatest tower wizards are cultivated through generations.
• Some wizard towers are more tower than wizard.
• In the mountains there is a magical tradition that casts shadows using gliders. Despite having no means of propulsion the gliders have great maneuverability as they can conjure wind from beneath them, and they can terrorize their enemies with impunity. (This idea originally came from Spiraxo on the OSR discord.)
• Dragons and ravens are also known for the use of aerial shadow casting.
• You can buy potions that have wondrous effects but can't be exposed to the Sun. So you need to drink it carefully and it will fail if you spit or bleed.
• There are illusionary people who don't know their illusions.
• In some cultures it's impolite to step on someone's shadow and in others it's impolite to cast you're shadow on someone.
• Homunculus are small because artificially making a fully sized human would is to dangerous.
• Casters who have enchanted marionette minions mock those who use enchanted skeletons as being cheap, while the later call the former pretensions.
• Magic items are weird and at times stupid because their creators don't really get to design them.
• The Fey are able to weave enchantments and conjure wonders without withering before everyone's eyes.
• Fools try to capture and eat them. Generally doesn't go well.
• You can Curse Flesh just be being very angry.
• There is a Caster who was able to survive underground by conjuring food for himself to eat. Now he cannot leave the caves because if he does than he'll disappear due to many months already having pasted out in the world. 

Secret Santicorn: Kowloon Planet, High Rise Defenses and more.

This is for Michael Bacon I don't know where I'm going with this, so I'll try something.

D12 Terrifying Defenses.

1. Retractable Spikes. They stab out when they sense something is there and slide back in when they sense weight on them. So you can't use them for climbing.
2. Near friction-less Wall. Not deadly by itself but impassible and moving around it leads you into more terrible things.
3. Automated Turrets, makes Swiss-cheese out of you.
4. Drones with little dart guns that shoot neurotoxins into you're face. Induces seizures while up on the wall or causes you to become paralyzed and stuck until someone pries you off, if they can do it before you're found.
5. Acid is poured down the side of the building, eats away at anything organic and most metals.
6. Wall springs out Catapulting you through the air. Reroll this if it's on one of the lower levels.
7. This section of wall has a series of metal bands on it, they have high voltage running through them.
8. Sonic Cannon, powerful enought to blast holes through concrete, will make you're remains unrecognizable.
9. An unreasonable amount of buzz saws.
10. Pressurized air shoots out of a hidden vent, launching you off the building. Reroll if on one of the lower levels.
11. Microscopic needles on the walls inject you with a fast acting poison and horrifying poison.
12. A dude throwing rocks, scrap and literal shit from the roof, can't beat the classics. (He's also conveniently a look out who can call for back up if you get past the automated defenses.

D12 Treasures on Kowloon Planet

1. A Glock.
2. A packet of dinosaur egg oatmeal. Like they look like eggs when they dissolve there's these little dinosaurs. Probably long stale by this point, that doesn't matter it's a status symbol to have a packet.
3. A 3-D printer that prints clips for holding clothes together. You're not sure how much plastic it's got left but even this is unbelievably useful.
4. A working Alarm Clock.
5. A high end prosthetic leg, custom fit for someone long dead.
6. A solar panel.
7. A mess of well preserved wires and miscellaneous electronic pieces. Miraculously untouched by the years really.
8.  A lawn mower. 
9. A Computer with "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress" Version 1.2 on it. It is clearly a source of divination and occult secrets. 
10. A laptop with 3D modeling software on it. 
11. A Geiger Counter 
12. A Jacket that is completely water proof and seems to react to the wearer for greater comfort.

I feel like some of the defenses feel a bit cartoony and the treasures feel more post-apocalpsy than si-fiy, so here is a third table free of charge. (Which doesn't make sense due to this being a gift, but that's beside the point.)

D12 Myths, Beliefs and Superstitions in the Ruined Cities.

1. Once upon a time the earth was soft, but just as a child becomes harder and more wrinkly as they grow older, so did the land.
2. Always be respectful to vending machines, it is bad luck to harm them.
3. The ancients we're creatures of illusion and glamour. They they are still out there living below the hills and among the stars.
4. The artifacts and craft that are to delicate to be built by human hand were made by gnomes, you can catch one and force it to make you something if it's hands are tied with string.
5. It is bad luck to go to the Cursed Place. You're children will be born monsters if you go to the Cursed Place. You're name wither off you and everyone will forget you if you go to the Cursed Place.
6. If you give you're name to the machines, the gnomes will have it.
7. You can weather the Cursed Place if you carry a anointed flashlight in you're hand.
8. If someone dies inside a building in their sleep, it's because an ancient tried to wake them.
9. Rats know always know how to get to safety.
10. Always keep both feet firmly on the ground when using a gun, to do otherwise is to invite the gun to possess you.
11. The ancients made guns by placing the souls of murders in them. Never trust one.
12. God speaks to us through computers.