True Names, True Speech - Earthsea and Ars Magica

Using Earthsea as an Ars Magica setting

True Names and True Speech

he basic problem with using Earthsea as a saga setting is that the Earthsea books explicitly state that True Speech and True Names are the alpha and omega of magic. One approach would be to say that the vocabulary of True speech is divided into words concerning plants (Herbam), the human body (Corpus), earth and metals (Terram), creation (Creo), control (Rego), change (Muto) etc. The first Earthsea book describes apprentices learning by heart the names for every reef and bay in order to control the sea, which would be consistent with the laborous learning of an art. Note that in the Earhsea books laboratory work and magic items (except staffs) are not common, magi are more like ordinary scholars in this regard. Also, no vis is used, there is no Parma Magica, and the limits of hermetic magic do not always apply. Although magic can aid in healing, it relies on herbs and shamanistic journeys to the spirit realm.

Balance of Nature

nother factor is that the Earthsea books (esp. the 3rd) maintain that spells may disrupt the balance of nature. This could be a result of a botch, but that would be inconsistent with the presented notion that the disruption is a result of side-effects ("a rain in one place may cause draught in another"). The more powerful a spell is, the more dangerous are its side-effects. Spells that are against the basic laws of nature (e.g. circumwent death) are certain to have catastrophic results. One solution would be to require that the spell roll must be at least equal to the spell level in order for the magus to neutralize the side-effects. A roll that is less than the spell level but at least lvl-10 would allow the spell to succeed, but with SG-determined side-effects. Also, some side-effects may not be neutralized, or may require a high spell casting roll (e.g. spell level + 10, double spell level, etc.) to neutralize them. This is the case especially with powerful spells. Int+tech+form roll against spell level is required to determine the side-effects (and if they can be neutralized) in advance.

Staffs

he wizards from the mageschools carry a silver-tipped staff, which is almost a badge of office. The silver tip is about 10 cm. long, and inscribed with magical runes. Wizards can cast at least some spells without it, but having the staff is clearly important, and spells are often visibly channeled through it.

The staff is a personal item, so others cannot use your staff, nor can you use theirs. It is not hard to create a basic staff, but creating a good staff takes both time and skill. Wizards from mageschools are granted good, but not superior, staffs upon graduation.

It is suggested that you apply some or all of the following rules. You may also decide that some features are only available in superior staffs.

1. The staff is a Talisman, and has all the affinities listed for staffs in the rulebook. Additionally, the staff has a +4 affinity for Vim magic. Option: some affinities are only available with better staffs.
2. All wizards have the -2 Flaw Deleterious Circumstances, Uncommon and Major: When not possessing the staff, all spell casting rolls are halved.
3. The staff acts as a focus for spells, aiding in controlling the casting. Reduce botch dice when using the staff (but always use at least one). The amount of dice reduced depends on the quality of the staff, but is usually one and never more than three.
4. Wizards are unable to cast meta-magic (Vim) spells without the focus provided by the staff.
5. The staff provides a bonus to finesse and twilight rolls. The bonus depends on the quality of the staff, but is usually two and never more than six. If the staff bonus is used for targeting rolls, the spell will seem to emerge from the silver tip of the staff. The finesse bonus can be different from the twilight bonus.

Incorporating Earthsea Magic into the Ars Magica magic system

Mechanics

agi who know True Speech, can add their skill in it to spell rolls, when they know the generic True Name of the target (e.g. asp, granite, dandelion, boy, etc). If a target has a specific True Name (e.g. Ged), and you know it, you may double your roll (including the true speech modifier). Note that "knowing a sea's specific True Name" means that you know the specific True Name for each bay, reef, shore etc. of the sea - it is very hard to use specific naming for geographical features. Sentient beings are another matter, of course. Using True speech is nonhermetic, so a stress roll is always used.

True Speech can have any Technique as speciality. The +1 bonus is then applied when this Technique is used.

Whether you know a True Name or not is determined by a knowledge roll. The knowledge is True Names(subject), and a magus generally has several such knowledges, e.g. True Names(Mountains in Gont region), True Names(animals), True Names(seas), etc. The stat used is Int, and the difficulty level depends on the subject. For example, assume you are rolling to determine if you know the generic True Name for a maple tree (note that there are several subspecies, and a True Name is always as specific as possible):

Subject accuracy	Example subject	Difficulty
Exact	Maple trees	6
Close	Trees	9
On the subject	Forests	15
General	Plants	24
All-encompassing	Life	36

Note the implied hierarchy in naming. Forms are considered to be of General accuracy level (so you can have the knowledge True Names(Ignem), but the difficulty will be 24). Naturally, Techniques cannot be subjects.

If you learn a True Names(subject) knowledge beyond the difficulty limit, it means you have moved from simple memorizing to deeper levels of understanding - why is a maple tree named thus, what correspondences are there to other names, etc. You must still roll to check if you botch (if a stress roll), but you get the extra points in your knowledge as a bonus to your spell roll (e.g. if you have the knowledge True Names(Maple trees) 8, you get a +2 bonus to your spell roll due to your deep understanding of the subject).

The True Names roll is stress or normal, depending on the situation. A botch means that a wrong name is remembered, which will cause the spell go askew in interesting ways - seldom directly deadly, though.

Magic's effect on the Balance of Nature is an Earthsea phenomen, and does not affect Mythic Europe. There is one exception: True Speech is nonhermetic, and may (Storyguide's option) allow a magus to break the limits of Hermetic magic. However, any spell which uses True Speech to this end, is certain to upset the Balance of Nature. Of course, a fanatic Bonisagus may care little if the spell that will render his name immortal has "minor" side-effects.

Exempli Gratia:

Ged the magus has skills True Speech 8, True Names(Animals) 6, True Names(Forests) 4, True Names(Gont roads) 3 and True Names(Horses) 2. Ged wants to call a horse magically (ReAn), and since his Re and An scores are 0, he attempts to use True Speech. Ged's int score is 3. Ged's player may now roll:

1. Int + True Names(Animals) against an ease factor of 24, or
2. Int + True Names(Horses) against an ease factor of 9.

Wisely, Ged's player selects the second option, and rolls a 5. 3 + 2 + 5 = 10, so Ged successfully remembers the True Name for this particular horse breed. His spell roll now receives an additional +8 modifier (the True Speech skill), so his spontaneous spell roll is now 11 + stress die (taking int into account). He should have no problems calling the horse, except possibly that his gift may upset it.

Now, if Ged had known the specific True Name (e.g. "Windrunner" in True Speech) for the horse (which assumes horses are sentient in Mythic Europe), e.g. by listening to the horse converse with its mate (using appropriate spells to understand horse language), the roll would have been doubled, so that the total would be (Int + Tech + Form + True Speech + stress die) x 2. If we assume Ged's player rolls a 4, the total would then be (3 + 0 + 0 + 8 + 4) x 2 = 30, resulting in a level 15 spontaneous spell.

Naturally only one attempt per situation is allowed. "Remembering" a name in a certain situation does not mean that the same name is automatically remebered in subsequent situations (although the SG may wish to award a bonus to the roll).

Finding out True Names

ou cannot "know" the specific True Name of a sentient being by rolling, it must be acquired in the story. True Names for sentient beings may not be directly acquired by magic, although there may be magical methods that assist in the finding of a True Name. In fact, a True Name is strongly linked to one's soul and it is thus beyond Hermetic Magic to affect it. Also, Exceptional Talents like Second Sight and Empathy may allow for guessing a person's True Name (the first Earthsea book hints at this). The talents may or may not work for non-humans, and if they do, penalties are probably applied. Learning someones True Name this way requires observation for a prolonged period of time, and the Per + Talent roll (usually simple die) has an ease factor of 15. If the target can be freely questioned, the ease factor is 12. If the target of his own free will actively and knowingly assists (volunteers information, meditates), the ease factor drops to 9. The roll may not be attempted again until your Talent ability has improved. Of course, the attempt also requires mastery of True Speech - a minimum score of 6 is required.

It is possible to protect yourself magically against people trying to guess your True Name using Empathy, Second Sight etc. The protection spells (form is usually Mentem) usually add their magnitude to the ease factor of guessing your name. Few magi that know their True Name are without a spell like this.

All sentient beings have a True Name, but are not necessarily aware of it. No two beings, living or dead, share the same name. Asking a person, who knows True Speech, and has an Exceptional Talent for finding a person's True Name, to name you, is the only way to find out your own True Name. Any magus capable of using True Speech in spells will know if the name given is correct or not. Also, when one tells you your real True Name you will recognize it as the Real Thing. However, if you do not know what having a True Name is like, you may mistakenly accept a false name as your "True Name".

Even non-sentient animals recognise their (non-specific) True Name. Just calling out the name will usually get the animal to approach you - however, it is under no compulsion to do so. It will trust you unless it has reason to believe otherwise, though. Even so, timid animals may take quite a bit of coaching before they approach.

Advantages of Knowing Your True Name

nowing your own True Name has similar benefits as the Strong Willed virtue (and is cumulative with it). It also adds three to all rolls concerning introspection and self-knowledge. If you are under a Mentem spell, hearing your True Name gives you another natural resistance roll (Int roll vs. 6 + spell magnitude, if nothing else is specified). All relevant bonuses apply, including the one you get from knowing your True Name.

Your True Name forms an intrinsic Arcane Connection to you; a magus who knows your True Name is considered to automatically possess an Arcane Connection to you. He must speak the name in order to use it, though.

Since uttering your True Name forms an Arcane Connection to you, it is possible to devise a spell that detects use of your True Name, and informs you of the speaker and his location. It is even possible to combine such a spell with an automatic attack spell targeted on the speaker, so beware of casually uttering the True Name of a magus. Note that using a True Name for spellcasting requires you to speak it.

Staffs

taffs work the same way as defined under Using Earthsea as an Ars Magica setting, above.

Mythic Europe Characters in Earthsea

he Gift is the same in both Mythic Europe and Earthsea. However, as finding out True Names is important in Earthsea magic, a magus that has an Exceptional Talent that aids in this endeavour (Empathy, Second Sight, etc. - see above) is considered to be more intrinsically powerful than one who does not. Archmages always have such a talent.

A Magus that is brought from Mythic Europe to Earthsea - e.g. via a botched teleport spell - is unable to cast spells until he learns True Speech: a minimum score of 1 in True Speech is needed, and if the roll to remember the correct True name does not succeed, the spell fails. If the use of True Speech is successful, however, the normal bonuses are gained. Beware: you risk upsetting the Balance of Nature every time you cast spells (see Using Earthsea as an Ars Magica Setting above).

Similarily, an Earthsea Wizard that is brought to Mythic Europe is unable to cast spells until he learns Hermetic magic, or some other form of magic native to Mythic Europe. Once he does, however, normal bonuses from the True Speech skill are gained (scores in True Speech and True Names are determined as described below). Note that Earthsea Wizards do not have Parma Magica.

The following game-mechanical correspondences apply:

Earthsea	Mythic Europe
Technique scores	True Speech
Form score x 2	True Names (Form) score

Native Earthsea wizard characters are created as normal Hermetic magi, and they use Earthsea magic with the same mechanics as normal Hermetic magi use Hermetic magic (see Using Earthsea as an Ars Magica Setting above). They do get to double their spell roll if they know the specific True Name of the target.

The Art scores of an Earthsea wizard reflect an intensely high understanding of True Speech, since they allow a wizard to perform magic through True Speech alone. If an Earthsea wizard learns Hermetic magic, he is then considered to have the knowledges True Names(Form) equal to double his Form scores, and a True Speech skill that is equal to the average of his Technique scores (speciality being the Technique with the highest score). He must learn Hermetic magic skills and Arts from scratch.

As you can see, a magus that knows both Hermetic and Earthsea magic is more powerful than either discipline would allow by itself. A powerful wizard from Earthsea that learns Hermetic magic will become really powerful:

Exempli Gratia

Ged the powerful Earthsea wizard has Creo 15, Intellego 5, Muto 12, Perdo 8, and Rego 10, so his Technique average is 10. In his speciality, Terram, he has a score of 22. He will therefore, among other things, have a True Speech(Creo) skill of 10 and a True Names(Terram) knowledge of 44 if he learns Hermetic magic. All his Hermetic Terram spells will have a +30 True speech bonus (+31 for CrTe). He will therefore be at his old power level almost immediately after learning the basics of Hermetic magic, and will continue to gain power.

As the above example hopefully makes clear, native Earthsea wizards that learn Hermetic magic should be strictly NPCs. Hermetic magi, on the other hand, will not gain new power as quickly, so Hermetic PC magi can relatively safely be allowed to learn True Speech. And finally, each discipline is laborous to learn and requires years of study. Major books on True Speech are hard to come by even in Earthsea, and the use of True Speech can only be studied at the mageschools of Earthsea - to which you must first gain entrance. The power gained is a power earned.