Gains real power by pretending to have real power

Charlatomancy

Nickname: None. If Charlatomancers were well known enough to have a nickname, or a known name of any kind, the gig would be up. The name given is for system purposes – each Adept probably has their own way to describe it, which they certainly don’t spread either.

Description:

There is, without a doubt, power in belief. Faith in the unknown is something that people can hold more important than their very existence. This power is something we all understand. Charlatomancers,
however, do not just understand this power. They cynically manipulate it.

Charlatomancers typically discover their magic independently and by accident; Charlatomancers cannot, by nature, train students, since people who know about Charlatomancy wreck it (see Charlatomancy
Taboos). They originally work their lies for the same reason other people claim to have magical abilities – to feel important and empowered, to trick the gullible, to make sense of the world, and, most of all, to get attention they couldn’t earn otherwise. Then, at some
point, the Charlatomancer is amazed to discover the real power they’re gathering, and begin to teach themselves to harvest that power.

The two most common professions of the Charlatomancer are the guru and the stage magician. Stage magic is flashier and more public, and if
you work mostly with kids, you’ll charge up fast, but debunking happens often. Gurus get debunked as well, but they earn a lot of respect from their cult, and if they keep themselves isolated, they can become a real
powerhouse. Many Charlatomancers do both of these things at different times. Some Charlatomancers instead pick a single target and repeatedly
convince them of their magic power – this relationship often takes the form of a bizarre stalking.

Who knows what would happen if the Sleepers found about about Charlatomancy? In one sense, they’d love it; easily debunked magicians provide the perfect smokescreen to cover up real magic. On the other
hand, Charlatomancy is really, really easy to shut down, so the Sleepers might just wipe one out to prove a point.

Charge Structure:

Minor charge: Convince someone to consider a magical theory that you know to be false. They need not totally believe it, but must consider it a possibility enough to change their course of action.

Significant charge: Perform a believable magical effect using no magic whatsoever. Others (at least one) must honestly believe that you personally have done something supernatural, when you haven’t. Kids do
count. It’s okay if you have used real magic in the person’s presence before, but, of course, convincing someone that real magic is real earns no juice.

Major charge: Found a new religion or magical movement based on principles you know to be false. The movement must be popular or famous – it must have at least a thousand members, or be known by ten million non-members.

Taboo: Being debunked. If someone catches you faking or making up magical effects, you lose all charges. They must do so out loud, or in print that you read – if you never find out about it, you’re fine.

Furthermore, if anyone discovers how your charge structure works, you can never use Charlatomancy while under their observation again. You don’t have to know about it. Because of this taboo, Charlatomancers have a habit of flocking to the Occult Underground, because people will accept strange theories, then fleeing it because Underground types will figure out their lies eventually.

Believing your own lies doesn’t violate taboo, but it also means you can’t gather charges. You can only gather charges by gaining charges which you know are false.

Symbolic Tension: Charlatomancy gains its power from illusion and deception which somehow translates into real mojo. To a Charlatomancer, the only real power is fake power.

Blast: The Charlatomancer launches an immense blast of colorful lights, strange noises, and destructive energies, which only the target can perceive. The target’s body responds with damaging psychosomatic harm, including headaches, bleeding ears, heart failure, and system shock.

Random Magick: Charlatomancer deals with belief systems, world views, trust and deception, and, most of all, cynicism.

Minor Formulas

Cold Read
Cost: 1 minor charge
Make a leading or incomplete statement of some kind. The subject will assume you’ve made a very insightful comment, and volunteer the most closely related statement they know as an example.

The Hand is Quicker than the Eye
Cost: 1 minor charge
You can use your Charlatomancy in place of a skill like Pickpocketing, Lockpicking, Stage Magic, or Make a Distraction, treating it as an Obsession Skill.

Alakazam!
Cost: 2 minor charges
This is the minor Charlatomancy Blast. It does damage as a melee weapon.

Trust In Me
Cost: 3 minor charges
Tell someone something, and they’ll believe it. They’ll sincerely believe it’s true indefinitely if the idea goes unchallenged. Every time the target sees evidence that they’re wrong (“Wait, this isn’t my house – the name out front says Stevens!”), or is given reasonable arguments why it would be false (“He’s never met you before – how could he have saved your life?”), the target can make a Mind check to realize the lie. Fatal lies (“Dran-O is good for you!”) get a +20% shift, and dangerous ones (“You
can crash a car safely if you have a Jesus fish on the bumper”) get a +10%. If the target fails, the target will figure out a way to convince themselves. Either way, stress checks may be in order.

If you spend a significant charge on this formula, the target needs to exceed your roll on that Mind check to realize the lie, allowing you to possibly convince someone of an obviously false idea indefinitely. (“The sky is red.”)

Shift the Blame
Cost: 5 minor charges
Pick a target, and something you’ve done. The target doesn’t have to be present, but if they aren’t, you need something that the target considers magickal or important, part of whatever they’d call a soul.
(Fingernails and hair clippings may work for a pagan, but for an atheist, you may need stolen handwritten poetry or even some brain matter) The target is now blamed for the thing you’ve done by everyone who knows about or discovers the deed. Those attempting to believe the truth must make a Rank-4 Self check to ignore intuition. How much a given person knows about the deed and the target affects how much they’ll assume. This manifests as gut instinct – memory and evidence are not changed. It can be any deed, not just a misdoing, as long as it’s something you honestly did.

Significant Formulas

I’m You
Cost: 1 significant charge
This is a dangerous but powerful way to get inside someone’s head. You take on all of someone’s assumptions, world views, beliefs and outlook.
Your Madness Meters match theirs, and so do your Passions and Obsession. You don’t gain any of their skills or knowledge, just their outlook. This also means you almost certainly won’t be able to do Charlatomancy. Lasts until you sleep: you’ll dream what they would dream, and then wake up. You’ll remember their outlook with perfect clarity afterward. Any Hardened or Failed notches you gain while
you’re them apply afterwards, even if the Stress Checks normally wouldn’t affect you. You’ll remember the whole thing very accurately – it’s a good way to learn about someone, or to do things you couldn’t bring yourself to do normally.

Warding Circle of Ignorance
Cost: 1 significant charge
You must create a magical circle, pentagram, or other believable “warding” mark that is quite visible and obvious. Anyone who sees it and treats it cautiously will be affected – for those who assume it’s hogwash, the circle is powerless. Avatar Channels, Rituals, Tilts, Formulas and many other special abilities will suffer a -40% shift to affect those within the protective area. If anyone crosses into or out of the circle, or verbally declares the magic to be fake, the circle loses all power.

Yes, Invisibility, Really
Cost: 2 significant charges
You become physically invisible to light. You can see but can’t be seen. You don’t show up on camera, either. You still make noise and smells and so forth. This ends instantly when anyone, friend or foe, suspects that someone is nearby and invisible. You could disappear in front of a die-hard skeptic and kill them with your bare hands without becoming invisible, but a super-paranoid would see you in an instant. You can’t cancel this power voluntarily – someone else has to break it for you.

Fake It So Real
Cost: 2 significant charges
This is the Charlatomancer Significant Blast. It does damage as a firearm.

Trick the Devil
Cost: 2 significant charges
Make a demon perceive whatever you want them to perceive. You could make the demon feel the pleasures of the flesh as a gift, or cause incredible agony to drive them off. The image will last until the demon leaves your presence.

Major Effects:
Take away an Adept’s magick. Make an invisible friend real. Transport yourself and your friends to a fictional paradise forever. Make everyone who ever knew you believe you’re nothing but a myth.