Dominion Magic

Philosophy

Dominion Magic is built on a brutal premise: if language can define reality, then language, image, and pressure can also define behavior. Dominion mages study authority, compliance, fear, identity fracture, and the mechanics by which minds accept commands as their own.

Some societies teach limited dominion arts openly for battlefield control, courtroom order, prison work, or riot suppression. Others ban most of it as a direct attack on personhood. Even where lawful, the school rarely escapes suspicion. Its cleanest techniques are still coercive by design.

Example Places of Study

Common Spells

Purpose/How It Works: Command Word delivers one concise instruction with a burst of binding force that pressures the target to obey before reflection catches up. Notable Exceptions: Simple actions work best. Strong-willed targets, layered wards, and commands against core self-preservation resist it. Example Use: A guard mage snaps “Drop it” and the suspect lets the knife hit the floor. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by vocal authority, clear language, positional dominance, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Spoken imperative, 1 to 2 seconds. Sealed authority token, 5 to 10 seconds. Range/Duration: Hearing range. One immediate action.

Purpose/How It Works: Silence of Dissent suppresses interruption, shouting, and competing speech in a bounded area by weighting the social field against open contradiction. Notable Exceptions: It does not remove all resistance; it mainly makes vocal opposition difficult and costly. Example Use: A tyrant’s herald silences the square before reading the new tax decree. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by prepared space, spoken authority, crowd pressure, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Public decree cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Hall-seal rite, 2 to 5 minutes. Range/Duration: Room to plaza scale. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Kneeling Pulse sends a body-level obedience shock through nearby targets, making them buckle or lose aggressive posture for a moment. Notable Exceptions: It works better on massed groups than on duel-level elites prepared for it. Example Use: Palace wardens drop a charging crowd to one knee before the gates. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by positional authority, floor contact, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Stamped pulse, 2 to 4 seconds. Threshold ward release, 10 to 20 seconds. Range/Duration: Several meters to a room. Seconds.

Purpose/How It Works: Borrowed Courage seizes panic from one group and redistributes steadiness or aggression into another, usually the caster’s allies. Notable Exceptions: Borrowed morale decays quickly and can leave the drained targets emotionally hollow or unstable afterward. Example Use: A commander robs the mob’s nerve and steadies the exhausted shield wall. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by crowd emotion, symbolic command, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Banner cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Battle-standard rite, 1 to 3 minutes. Range/Duration: Squad to crowd scale. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Puppet Step briefly hijacks a target’s motor sequence, forcing one movement such as a stumble, turn, kneel, or dropped strike. Notable Exceptions: It is strongest on immediate actions, not long choreographies. Pain, discipline, and anti-compulsion training can interrupt it. Example Use: An assassin’s wrist is turned aside at the last heartbeat before the blade lands. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by line of sight, body-reading, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Gesture lock, 2 to 4 seconds. Marionette focus, 10 to 20 seconds. Range/Duration: Short to moderate line of sight. One forced action.

Purpose/How It Works: Loyal Mask overlays a target’s public self with signs of assent, devotion, or confidence regardless of inward feeling. Notable Exceptions: It manipulates performance more easily than private conviction. Skilled observers can still notice strain underneath. Example Use: A frightened hostage appears calm and willing while negotiations continue. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by image pressure, social expectation, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Face-touch cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Cosmetic rite, 20 to 40 seconds. Range/Duration: Touch or close range. Minutes to hours.

Purpose/How It Works: Crowd Sway tilts a gathered population toward fear, calm, anger, devotion, or obedience by amplifying the most available emotional current. Notable Exceptions: It cannot sustain a mood totally alien to the crowd’s existing state without massive cost. Example Use: A demagogue turns a tense food line into a chanting march within three sentences. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by crowd density, rhetoric, symbolism, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Speech cast, 10 to 30 seconds. Platform rite, 3 to 8 minutes. Range/Duration: Hall to public square. Minutes to one hour.

Purpose/How It Works: Sleep of Compliance pushes a target into a soft, receptive state in which commands and suggestions meet less resistance. Notable Exceptions: It works best on already exhausted or overwhelmed minds. Violent mental resistance can turn it into a seizure risk. Example Use: Captors lull a prisoner before applying a more precise interrogation sequence. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by exhaustion, rhythmic voice, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Low-voice lull, 10 to 20 seconds. Incense-assisted rite, 2 to 5 minutes. Range/Duration: One to several nearby targets. Minutes to hours.

Purpose/How It Works: Confession Pressure increases the psychological cost of concealment until a target feels physically compelled to speak or break under the strain. Notable Exceptions: It pressures disclosure; it does not guarantee truth unless paired with other disciplines. Example Use: An investigator forces the bribed clerk to reveal who paid him before his nose and ears begin to bleed from resistance. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by accusation structure, verbal framing, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Spoken examination, 20 to 40 seconds. Court interrogation rite, 5 to 15 minutes. Range/Duration: Hearing range or contained chamber. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Witness Blindness prevents onlookers from recognizing the significance of an event even while they physically see it. Notable Exceptions: It blunts interpretation, not raw sight. Repeated exposure creates suspicion and fragmented recall. Example Use: A palace faction replaces the seal on a decree in front of servants who later swear nothing important happened. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by social inattentiveness, image pressure, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Passing glamour-cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Hall concealment rite, 2 to 5 minutes. Range/Duration: Small group to room scale. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Chain of Office binds obedience more strongly to recognized rank, regalia, title, or institutional role. Notable Exceptions: It is powerful in structured hierarchies and much weaker in chaotic or anti-authoritarian cultures. Example Use: A general’s command voice suddenly becomes impossible for conscripts to ignore while the chain is active. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by genuine office, recognized symbols, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Regalia activation, 10 to 20 seconds. Throne or court rite, 3 to 8 minutes. Range/Duration: Unit, chamber, or institutionally bound audience. Minutes to days.

Purpose/How It Works: Voice of the Throne magnifies a ruler’s presence so that commands arrive with ritual inevitability and emotional overpressure. Notable Exceptions: It fails spectacularly if the ruler’s legitimacy is already broken beyond repair. Example Use: A queen stops the beginning of a coup by speaking one sentence across the court and making every sword arm hesitate. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by enthroned authority, crown or seal symbols, and substantial caster or state-backed reserves. Casting Methods: Spoken decree, 5 to 10 seconds. Throne-room amplification rite, 5 to 15 minutes. Range/Duration: Hall to palace complex. Seconds to minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Severed Refusal temporarily cuts a target off from the inner impulse to say no, making negotiation, command, or seduction vastly more dangerous. Notable Exceptions: It does not erase judgment entirely, but it strips the target’s ability to halt the exchange at the normal moment. Many regions outlaw it explicitly. Example Use: A cult recruiter uses the spell to turn one conversation into a binding initiation. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by close proximity, invasive focus, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Intimate touch cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Chamber rite, 2 to 5 minutes. Range/Duration: Touch or intimate conversational range. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Gilded Devotion wraps obedience in admiration, reverence, or romanticized awe so domination feels meaningful rather than forced. Notable Exceptions: It often collapses into hatred once broken. Strong preexisting contempt resists it. Example Use: A charismatic ruler builds a bodyguard order that truly believes bondage to him is honor. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by symbols of beauty, status, repeated exposure, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Gaze-and-speech cast, 20 to 40 seconds. Cultic devotion rite, 10 to 30 minutes. Range/Duration: One target or a gathered audience. Hours to months with reinforcement.

Purpose/How It Works: Turned Blade redirects hostile intent at the last instant, making a target strike wide, hesitate, or attack the wrong threat. Notable Exceptions: It is strongest at the moment of decision. Sustained battle control requires repetition or stronger bindings. Example Use: An honor guard kills the usurper’s own champion when the assassin’s angle turns half a degree. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by target fixation, line of sight, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Snap-cast, 1 to 2 seconds. Marked-target rite, 20 to 40 seconds. Range/Duration: Short to moderate line of sight. One attack or one decision point.

Purpose/How It Works: Public Shame weaponizes a crowd’s moral pressure so the target experiences resistance, exposure, and bodily weakness if they persist in the forbidden act. Notable Exceptions: It is weak where the audience does not share the same norm. Example Use: A thief cannot bring himself to pocket the idol while the whole temple hall turns its gaze on him. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by shared social norms, crowd focus, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Public accusation, 10 to 20 seconds. Tribunal rite, 3 to 8 minutes. Range/Duration: One target before a group. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Consent Theft rewrites the immediate emotional framing of a choice so compliance feels self-originating rather than externally forced. Notable Exceptions: This is one of the most reviled dominion workings because it poisons the distinction between willing action and magical coercion. Example Use: A noble enchanter makes a witness believe she volunteered the names of the conspirators. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by intimate conversational access, image shaping, and heavy caster reserves. Casting Methods: Whispered cast, 10 to 20 seconds. Private chamber rite, 5 to 15 minutes. Range/Duration: Conversational range. Minutes to hours.

Purpose/How It Works: Mob Fever converts a crowd from passive grievance into coordinated aggression by synchronizing anger and suppressing individual hesitation. Notable Exceptions: Once released, it is harder to direct than to start. Blowback against the caster is common if the social tide turns. Example Use: A revolutionary speaker transforms market unrest into a palace march in under five minutes. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by crowd density, preexisting grievance, and substantial caster output. Casting Methods: Rally speech, 30 to 60 seconds. Bonfire rite, 5 to 15 minutes. Range/Duration: Public square to district crowd. Minutes to hours.

Purpose/How It Works: Idol Gaze anchors obedience to an image, statue, seal, or mask so targets continue to feel watched and judged even after the caster leaves. Notable Exceptions: Breaking or desecrating the anchor weakens the effect. Cynical or iconoclastic subjects resist it better. Example Use: Occupation forces install a golden mask in the forum that makes every public denial of the regime physically difficult. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by a symbolic idol, repeated attention, and ongoing maintenance rites. Casting Methods: Idol consecration, 5 to 15 minutes. Festival enthronement, 20 to 60 minutes. Range/Duration: One site around the image. Days to months.

Purpose/How It Works: Detect Thoughts reads the surface pressure of active thought, emotion, and immediate intent from nearby minds. Notable Exceptions: It catches surface turbulence best. Deep memories and disciplined silence remain difficult. Example Use: An interrogator knows exactly which name made the prisoner panic. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by line of sight, mental pressure, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Focused read, 3 to 6 seconds. Circlet or mask focus, 10 to 20 seconds. Range/Duration: Nearby minds in a room or tight crowd. Seconds to minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Hold Person arrests voluntary movement by forcing the body to obey a command of stillness stronger than its own impulse to move. Notable Exceptions: It is strongest on humanoid bodies and weaker against beasts, monstrosities, or overwhelming physical momentum. Example Use: A fleeing spy locks in place halfway through the window. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by line of sight, positional authority, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Spoken arrest, 2 to 4 seconds. Seal-and-gaze cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Range/Duration: One visible target. Seconds to minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Calm Emotions lowers anger, panic, frenzy, and grief spikes so a crowd or target becomes governable again. Notable Exceptions: It soothes; it does not resolve the cause of the emotion. Violent re-escalation is common once it ends. Example Use: A riot pauses long enough for the gates to open and the food wagons to enter. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by crowd pressure, measured voice, and the caster’s reserves. Casting Methods: Spoken pacification, 5 to 10 seconds. Bell, incense, or banner rite, 1 to 3 minutes. Range/Duration: Small crowd or room. Minutes.

Purpose/How It Works: Dominate Person overwrites the target’s decision process with the caster’s command structure for a sustained span. Notable Exceptions: It is invasive, unstable, and among the most politically and morally notorious dominion workings. Example Use: The duke signs the order, seals it, and only later wonders why his hand would not stop. Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by intense mental pressure, symbolic dominance, and heavy caster reserves. Casting Methods: Direct domination cast, 20 to 40 seconds. Throne, chair, or chain rite, 5 to 15 minutes. Range/Duration: One target within sight or ritual containment. Minutes to hours.