Sanctified Magic

Philosophy

Sanctified mages treat magic as covenant made practical. A blessing is an alignment of body, place, and purpose. A consecrated field is a promise enforced in light and law. A smite is judgment delivered through a weapon that has agreed to mean more than metal.

This school sits closest to what many cultures call holy magic, though it can also be learned in non-clerical traditions. Its users include benevolent priests, war-priests, paladins, hospital orders, shrine keepers, exorcists, and city templars. Some rely mostly on personal training. Others act as conduits for Primes or Resonants who are willing to supply energy and stabilization.

Example Places of Study

Common Spells

Bless

Purpose/How It Works: Bless aligns a group with steadier aim, clearer nerve, and better resistance to panic or curse.
Notable Exceptions: It improves disciplined action, not raw genius or impossible luck.
Example Use: A priest marks the defenders before dawn and their line holds where it should have broken.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, group assent, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Spoken blessing, 5 to 10 seconds. Processional rite, 1 to 3 minutes.
Range/Duration: Small group to squad. Minutes to hours.

Sanctuary

Purpose/How It Works: Sanctuary makes direct violence against the protected target feel spiritually and psychologically wrong unless the attacker forces through the aversion.
Notable Exceptions: Determined killers and mindless hazards are less affected. The protection usually weakens once the warded target attacks.
Example Use: Refugees pass around a consecrated child none of the soldiers can bear to strike first.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, group assent, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Touch blessing, 3 to 6 seconds. Altar-marked ward, 20 to 40 seconds.
Range/Duration: Touch or close range. Seconds to minutes.

Shield Of Faith

Purpose/How It Works: Shield of Faith wraps a target in visible or invisible sacred force that turns aside blows and hostile magic.
Notable Exceptions: It protects best against external assault, not poison already in the blood or collapse underfoot.
Example Use: A paladin walks through arrow rain with golden light flaring off each shaft.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, group assent, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Touch invocation, 3 to 6 seconds. Shield-boss activation, near-instant.
Range/Duration: Self or touched ally. Seconds to minutes.

Lay On Hands

Purpose/How It Works: Lay on Hands transfers healing force directly through touch with exceptional control and emotional steadiness.
Notable Exceptions: It still obeys lifeforce cost. Miraculous precision does not make the energy free.
Example Use: A battle chaplain closes a spear wound on the temple steps with one glowing hand.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by the caster’s reserves, willing divine aid, and direct bodily contact with the patient.
Casting Methods: Touch cast, 5 to 15 seconds. Bedside prayer, 1 to 3 minutes.
Range/Duration: Touch. Immediate stabilization with ongoing recovery.

Prayer Of Healing

Purpose/How It Works: Prayer of Healing distributes restorative force across multiple wounded targets through a shared liturgical frame.
Notable Exceptions: It is slower than emergency triage and weaker on critically dying patients.
Example Use: After the battle, the wounded kneel in rows while the priest walks among them in prayer.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, group assent, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Group prayer, 2 to 5 minutes. Full temple healing rite, 10 to 30 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room or field-hospital section. Immediate treatment over minutes.

Cure Affliction

Purpose/How It Works: Cure Affliction targets curse, poison, disease, or corruption by reasserting healthy sacred order over the invaded pattern.
Notable Exceptions: Deep-rooted conditions may require repeated treatment or additional mundane care.
Example Use: A pilgrim priest burns plague-sweat out of a village elder before it can spread further.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, clean water, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Touch and prayer, 10 to 20 seconds. Shrine cleansing rite, 5 to 15 minutes.
Range/Duration: Touch or one contained target. Instant treatment with recovery after.

Divine Favor

Purpose/How It Works: Divine Favor sharpens a warrior’s judgment, weapon timing, and moral certainty during a short crucial exchange.
Notable Exceptions: It enhances committed action and often collapses if the user acts against their stated vow or duty.
Example Use: A templar’s blade begins striking exactly where the abomination leaves itself open.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by vow-alignment, martial focus, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Self-invocation, 2 to 4 seconds. Weapon prayer, 10 to 20 seconds.
Range/Duration: Self. Seconds to minutes.

Smite

Purpose/How It Works: Smite loads a weapon blow or strike with radiant judgment that erupts on impact.
Notable Exceptions: It is strongest against corruption, undead animation, and oathbreakers, but still harmful to ordinary foes.
Example Use: A war-priest’s hammer lands and the corpse-thing inside the gate comes apart in light.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by vow-alignment, martial focus, sanctified weapons, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Strike-bound cast, near-instant on attack. Weapon charge prayer, 5 to 10 seconds.
Range/Duration: Weapon reach or a touched strike. One empowered hit.

Warding Bond

Purpose/How It Works: Warding Bond links two allies so injury, strain, and warding pressure are shared instead of falling on one alone.
Notable Exceptions: It can save the protected target while killing the protector if used recklessly.
Example Use: A paladin takes half the curse-force meant for the child behind him.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by linked vows, touch contact, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Shared touch rite, 20 to 40 seconds. Bond-charm activation, 5 to 10 seconds.
Range/Duration: Linked pair. Minutes to hours.

Beacon Of Hope

Purpose/How It Works: Beacon of Hope raises morale, clarifies healing work, and makes despair harder for allied minds to accept.
Notable Exceptions: It cannot erase grief or terror, only stop them from ruling the moment.
Example Use: The plague ward stops panicking when the chapel lantern begins to glow like sunrise.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, radiant symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Raised symbol cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Lantern or altar rite, 1 to 3 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room to courtyard. Minutes to hours.

Consecrate Ground

Purpose/How It Works: Consecrate Ground marks an area as spiritually ordered, making corruption, panic, corpse-rise, and hostile ritual work more difficult.
Notable Exceptions: It must be maintained. Polluted, cursed, or blood-soaked places may fight the consecration.
Example Use: A shrine is made safe enough that the dead around it finally stop stirring at night.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, sanctified symbols, site identity, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Boundary prayer, 2 to 5 minutes. Full site consecration, 20 to 60 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room, shrine, or field section. Days to years with renewal.

Turn The Restless

Purpose/How It Works: Turn the Restless floods undead, corpse-servants, and hostile remnants with sanctified pressure that drives them back or breaks their hold.
Notable Exceptions: Well-constructed necromantic servants and high-order undead can resist or merely recoil.
Example Use: A crypt full of bone laborers staggers backward from one ringing invocation.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, radiant symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Spoken turning, 3 to 6 seconds. Bell-and-circle rite, 1 to 3 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room to hall scale. Instant recoil to minutes of suppression.

Exorcism

Purpose/How It Works: Exorcism drives out invasive influence such as curse-threads, possessing traces, false identities, or hostile magical occupancy.
Notable Exceptions: It is exhausting, often traumatic for the host, and dangerous if the invading pattern is deeply woven in.
Example Use: A child speaking with three dead voices is finally returned to herself.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, names, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Immediate banishing cast, 20 to 40 seconds. Full exorcism rite, 10 to 30 minutes.
Range/Duration: Touch or one contained subject. Instant with aftercare.

Radiant Lance

Purpose/How It Works: Radiant Lance projects a spear of focused sanctified light for battlefield judgment at range.
Notable Exceptions: It is line-of-sight dependent and brightest against targets already marked by corruption or oathbreak.
Example Use: A mounted knight drops a fleeing cult standard-bearer with one thrown line of white fire.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by vow-alignment, radiant symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Forward cast, 2 to 4 seconds. Lance-tip charge, 5 to 10 seconds.
Range/Duration: 5 to 25 meters. Instant strike.

Holy Weapon

Purpose/How It Works: Holy Weapon sanctifies a blade, hammer, or spear so it shines, strikes harder against corruption, and resists fouling magic.
Notable Exceptions: It works best on weapons already tied to oath, office, or ritual use.
Example Use: The gate-captain lifts an otherwise ordinary sword that now cuts revenant mail like wax.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by sanctified weapons, vow-alignment, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Weapon blessing, 10 to 20 seconds. Altar consecration, 2 to 5 minutes.
Range/Duration: One weapon. Minutes to days.

Spirit Guard

Purpose/How It Works: Spirit Guard summons a moving perimeter of radiant watchfulness that intercepts curse-work, remnant intrusion, and sudden spiritual assault.
Notable Exceptions: It is strongest against intangible or corruption-driven threats, not siege engines and mundane arrows.
Example Use: Pilgrims sleep inside a slow-turning ring of pale guardians while the haunted moor mutters outside.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Circular invocation, 10 to 20 seconds. Camp rite, 2 to 5 minutes.
Range/Duration: Small group or camp. Minutes to hours.

Mass Blessing

Purpose/How It Works: Mass Blessing spreads courage, steadiness, and light restorative support across a crowd.
Notable Exceptions: It is broad but shallow compared to focused healing or elite battle prayer.
Example Use: A city square kneels and rises ready instead of broken.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, group assent, sanctified symbols, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Public blessing, 1 to 3 minutes. Grand liturgy, 10 to 30 minutes.
Range/Duration: Crowd to district congregation. Minutes to hours.

Circle Of Mercy

Purpose/How It Works: Circle of Mercy creates a protected healing zone where panic eases, pain lowers, and restorative spells work more cleanly.
Notable Exceptions: It protects and heals; it does not make the space invulnerable.
Example Use: Field surgeons save twice as many lives once the mercy circle is laid in the mud.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, clean water, symbols of care, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Ground-marked rite, 1 to 3 minutes. Full chapel circle, 10 to 20 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room or ward line. Minutes to hours.

Sunburst

Purpose/How It Works: Sunburst releases a brilliant pulse of sanctified light that blinds, scatters corruption, and breaks lesser undead animation.
Notable Exceptions: It affects allies if used carelessly and is weaker in fully sealed darkness-wards.
Example Use: The crypt stair floods with noon-bright light and the corpse-host collapses backward.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by radiant symbols, stored light, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Raised-symbol cast, 5 to 10 seconds. Solar lens rite, 1 to 3 minutes.
Range/Duration: Room to courtyard. Instant flash with seconds of aftereffect.

Guardian Host

Purpose/How It Works: Guardian Host manifests a small number of radiant martial forms that intercept blows, hold lines, or strike corruption-driven enemies.
Notable Exceptions: They are sustained liturgical constructs, not independent souls or true celestial beings.
Example Use: A shrine’s defenders fight beside six figures of golden vow-light until dawn.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by spoken liturgy, sanctified weapons, and the caster’s reserves; divine sponsorship can carry much of the cost.
Casting Methods: Host invocation, 20 to 40 seconds. Great vigil rite, 5 to 15 minutes.
Range/Duration: Shrine, gate, or battlefield knot. Minutes to hours.

Martyr S Stand

Purpose/How It Works: Martyr’s Stand lets a defender keep fighting, guarding, or holding position beyond ordinary bodily collapse by converting future recovery and reserve into present endurance.
Notable Exceptions: The debt falls due afterward. Many users die once the stand ends.
Example Use: A gate-paladin holds the breach with broken ribs long enough for the children to pass behind him.
Typical Cost/Power Source: Usually fed by vow-alignment, personal reserves, and sometimes divine over-support that leaves devastation in the body afterward.
Casting Methods: Desperate self-invocation, 2 to 4 seconds. Battle vow, 10 to 20 seconds.
Range/Duration: Self. Seconds to one scene.