Nothing’s new under the sun… or is it?

(AKA Artfags, Purists, Hacks)

True genius is never understood in its own time. Look at Da Vinci. Galileo. Van Gough. Edison. Decades, centuries, ahead of the fools who surrounded them, the ignorant masses who laughed at them and their ideas. But not us. Not today. Because we know that they weren’t insane or daydreamers or heathens, but brilliant men who should have been exhalted by their peers and given their due.

Like you should.

Your last contributions to a publishing house were met with derisive laughter (“crayons are an original medium, sir, and I would thank you if you didn’t mock them so!”). Buffoons, philistines, all of them; they wouldn’t recgonise talent even if it was placed before them. When you read through the works of those who have been before you, you saw where they didn’t succeed, why they failed in what they did, and you took it upon yourself to never make the same mistakes. Sure, you may have “borrowed” some of their more delectable phrases, but that doesn’t change the fact that the work was your ow- what do you mean, you need to give credit! None! None! It’s your work!

Primigenomancers come in two main kinds: the purist (also known as the artfag), who believes that his scrawlings with a broken glass bottle and a puddle of his own blood on the living canvas of that was his victim’s skin is the only true original thing left to the world, and the hack, who believes that his plagiarism of other works are the only true original thing left to the world. Both are, of course, insane and dreadfully wrong.

The central paradox of Primigenomancy is that there is nothing truly original left to the world after centuries of experimentation and improvement, that what is being passed as creativity these days are merely rewordings and reworkings of the same idea expounded upon by thousands in the past, but yet they must still pretend- nay, believe– that their work is original.

Blast Style
Hacks and artfags have no blast.

Stats:
Generate a Minor Charge: Pass something that someone else did off as your own. This work must be recgonised as an attempt for publishing by a figure of authority, be it a magazine, a vanity press or even a website, although it does not have to be accepted: only recgonised as an attempt. Alternatively, take at least three seperate, unique ideas and come up with something original from their junxaposition.
Generate a Significant Charge: Pass something that someone famous did off as your own. This work must be recgonised as an attempt for publishing by a figure of authority, be it a magazine, a vanity press or even a website. In addition, such work must also be accepted for publishing. Alternatively, take at least five seperate, unique ideas and come up with something original from their junxaposition and get it published as original material.
Generate a Major Charge: Make something truly original that has never crossed the mind of a person, living or dead, even once. This has been attempted before more than once, and has almost always failed: originality is near non-existant these days.
Taboo: Thinking or be shown proof (beyond a shadow of doubt) that their work is not as original as they thought it was. Primigenomancers often shy away from critics despite them being well-read and educated people by nature (so that they can have something to copy from), lest they find someone who calls them a plagiarist and actually manages to pull out proof of such plagiarism.
Random Magick Domain: Need to make that dull rusty iron toaster appear new and fresh? A Primigenomancer can make it turn into a microwave. Artfags and hacks alike deal with the abstract concepts of “new-ness” and “improved-ness”; whether it’s a true improvement, or if it’s even truly something new (as opposed to something that was merely reworked and passed off as new) over the original design doesn’t matter. However, a microwave that has a gnawed-off power cable isn’t going to function anyway, regardless of how improved it is.
Charging Tips: An artfag can easily rack up anything from 2 to 5 minor charges per week, depending on how fast he works and his chosen medium of expression. Depending on how sneaky he is as well, he can also gather in a couple of significant charges at the same time; but chances are, if he recieves a rejection letter, he’s going to break taboo and probably go into “writer’s funk” for some time.

Primigenomancy Minor Formula Spells
Skipped By The Editor’s Scissors (3 minor charges)
People simply don’t notice that you’re there (they either look away when you walk past them, or events conspire to make them not notice you such as sand getting in their eyes etc.) for a number of rounds (3 seconds each) equal to the sum of your roll when casting this spell. This spell does not work in combat, but is terribly useful for getting through guards, past security checkpoints and so on. Since this isn’t typical “invisibility”, cameras still capture you on film, although anyone watching the film don’t notice that you’re there while the spell is running. Only the target of this spell is affected, although his allies could use the same amount of time the spell lasts for (i.e. while the guard is trying to remove the sand from his eye) if it’s applicable: DM’s discreetion, ultimately.

Critic’s Eye (1 minor charge)
When you cast this spell, you can now use your Magick: Primigenomancy skill in lieu of your Notice for any one action or 30 minutes, whichever is shorter. A curious side effect of this spell is that, while it lasts, the artfag’s eye is drawn to the bad taste of the creator of any particular item it views.

Acrylic Or Watercolours? (2 minor charges)
When this spell is cast, any one object that the hack is touching can be transformed into something thematically similiar, such as (as the spell’s title suggests) from acrylic to watercolours, a dishwasher into a washing machine etc. However, the container for such an item (if any) does not change, so the artfag would have to be content with spraying watercolours or feeding his clothing into the dishwashing trays. Such transformations are usually permenant, if they’re merely minor (blue paint to white paint), but for more drastic changes (acrylic to watercolours) the spell only lasts for one extended action, although the product of the action remains (any transmuted watercolours sprayed onto a painting remains as watercolours). No, this spell cannot turn lead into gold or anything quite as valuable; they’re thematically too different, despite the alchemical connection.

Rant (5 minor charges)
Provided that the roll made to cast this spell is higher than the target’s Mind score, the artfag can make the target speak constantly on any subject that he chose while casting the spell. If the roll is lower or equals to the target’s Mind score, the artfag cannot choose the subject: the target just says the first thing that is on his mind and keeps on saying it in a stream-of-consciousness style, as if he was suffering from verbal diaherra. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the highest dice rolled while casting the spell.

Like Wet Putty (6 minor charges)
With this spell, you can make anything inanimate and non-organic that you touch become as mallable and soft as wet putty: steel, stone, cloth, all become yielding and shapable. Each casting of this spell only allows you to make one such major modification to the material, so shaping horns atop the statue of Napolean takes one casting, while making him grow fangs takes another. This spell does not grant you the ability to make your shaping any more realistic, however: a roll against an appropriate skill, such as Pottery or Scuplting, must still be made for the more elaborate changes.

Primigenomancy Significant Formula Spells
Where’s My Brush (3 significant charges)
This spell must be cast in any mess, such as an artist’s apron bristling with brushes of all sorts or a table covered in tins of paint, spraycans and sketches. Thereafter, the artfag can just expend 1 minor charge and reach into the mess to produce any mundane object that could concievably exist in that mess, such as a paintbrush or a piece of blank canvas, even if it wasn’t there originally. This spell must be cast in a location or on an object that is mystically significant to the artfag, so an artist could cast it on his studio’s table while an author could cast it on his writing table and so on. Where’s My Brush (or pen, or pottery, or paper) can be cast on multiple locations, but each casting costs an additional 3 significant charges, so a second casting would cost 6 significant charges, third 9 significant charges and so on.

Typo (2 significant charges)
The moment you cast this spell on someone, he finds himself unable to say, type or otherwise communicate a chosen phrase (no longer than a number of syllables equal to the tens position on your Magick roll); whenever he tries to utter that phrase, he begins to stumble over his own words. This effect lasts for a number of days equal to his Soul score minus the roll (yes, a higher roll means that the spell fades more rapidly), but for at least a day.

The Games Kids Play (3 significant charges)
If you touch someone and cast this spell, the target’s Soul score is immediately reduced by the highest dice of the roll you just made to cast the spell. This reduction is permenant, and multiple castings can be made on the same target. Remember that no Soul skill can be higher than one’s Soul score.

Ideas’ Barnyard (5 significant charges)
The hack chooses an idea- any idea- and throws it out through the backdoor of a selective slice of human consciousness, such as “all brain surgeons” or “all painters”. This idea takes root in the minds of these people and begins to grow, slowly but surely: in game terms, this effect is similiar to that of the Demagouge’s third channel, except that the purist does not need to meditate on the idea for a day, can only appeal to one small slice of human consciousness and, of course, must spend charges to get it in. The more elaborate and insane ideas are likely to be dismissed out of hand, of course, but more reasonable ones may be slowly accepted into society.

Primigenomancy Major Effects
Make something that you just created (a novel, a painting etc) come to life temporarily or permenantly- depending on the charges expended and the plausibility of such a change to reality-, remove an idea from human consciousness permenantly, destroy every single instance of a phrase and so on.