Because Master told me to, that’s why.

AKA subs, willing slaves

The practise of slavery is no longer as common as it once was. It is said that the Roman Empire was so dependent on slaves that Latin has no fewer than twelve variations on the word, although nobody has yet bothered to check the accuracy of this claim. The wealth of the British Empire was, if not entirely dependent, certainly helped quite a lot by the practise of buying and selling human beings, as was the wealth of the USA. For millennia, no sensible, thinking man would have ever wanted to become a slave. Needless to say, as any subīremancer will tell you, matters have changed.

Much to the chagrin of no small number of clued-in feminists, the first subīremancer was in fact a woman. The concubine and housekeeper of The True King of Cape Town, she lived a life of tiring but devoted domestic servitude under the approving eye of her master who punished and rewarded her for her deeds as fairly as he could. When her magical powers became apparent, it took the mind of one of the country’s leading Occult theorists to work out that what he was witnessing was a whole new school of magic, based on a paradox nobody had previously thought to exploit: if a man serves a King, does some of the King’s authority not pass to him? Other Adepts across the world picked up on the school quickly and there were rumours that even the Cult Of The Naked Goddess had recruited a few of these men and women to help in the reproduction of ‘The Taming Of The Vixen’, the Goddess’ only known bondage feature.

The life of a subīremancer is a hard one, but the rewards are great. As possession of the willing slave empowers the Master, so following the will of the Master empowers the willing slave. And just remember: wearing a collar and possibly a lot of leather isn’t really necessary to practise this school, but it does help.

Charging Structure:

Generate a Minor Charge: Successfully complete a task or series of tasks given to you by your Master, taking at least an hour, without taking any breaks or attempting any other tasks without your Master’s permission. It does not matter what the task is – even obeying the instruction ‘Wait here’ generates charges as long as the sub waits and does nothing else without their Master’s permission.

Generate a Significant Charge: On the orders of your Master, complete a dangerous task (that is, a task that would risk serious injury or severe mental stress) or one that would bring great benefits to your Master (gain a large amount of money, secure a moderately powerful magical artefact, protect your Master from serious injury or severe mental stress).

Generate a Major Charge: Complete a task or series of tasks on the orders of your Master that are critical to your Master’s achieving power on a massive scale. Examples might include allowing your Master to gain a Major Charge, become a Godwalker or even Ascend to the Invisible Clergy, become the undisputed ruler of a large country or major business.

Taboo: The subīremancer always serves a Master. Without anyone to serve, the sub is bereft of their motivation. The sub may never disobey, either in letter or in spirit, the instructions given to them by their Master – indeed, they must attempt to fulfil them to the best of their ability, even at the cost of their own life if they do not wish to break taboo. Finally, the sub’s Master may taboo them at any point simply by sincerely expressing disapproval of their slave’s conduct.

Symbolic Tension: The paradox behind Subīremancy is strength through weakness, empowerment through submission. By bowing before the strength of their Master, they gain strength themselves.

Random Magic: Subīremancy deals with power of the sub and the authority of the Master, both real and perceived.

Blast: The Subīremantic blast is peculiar in that the willing slave cannot use it freely – they may only use it against someone that their Master has instructed them to hurt. When the sub uses this blast, the next attack they make automatically succeeds, bypassing armour, ignoring dodges and anything that would not protect against any other Blast, and does damage according to the level of the Blast used.

Starting Charges: A subīremancer starts with 2 Minor charges and (hopefully) a Master to help them get more.

Minor Formula Spells:

Earn Your Keep: willing slaves must obey their Masters, and it’s useful for their magic to help them to do it. Under the influence of this spell, the slave may use his Subīremancy skill in place of any other skill he currently possesses – but only if the skill would be useful in fulfilling a task allocated to them by their Master. The spell ends the moment this task is completed or after 24 hours, whichever is sooner.
Costs 3 Minor Charges

Tireless Servitude: A slave’s work is never done, no matter what their body may say to the contrary. When this spell is cast the Subīremancer immediately becomes alert and refreshed, and continues to feel this way for 24 hours. In practical terms, this means that they will suffer no penalties of any sort due to mental exhaustion, and will only begin taking penalties from physical exhaustion when they are so overworked that their bodies stop working properly (as opposed to distractions from aches and pains, etc). When the spell’s effects wear off the caster will still feel refreshed, but will tire as normal. If they are suffering any physical effects such as, for example, severe cramp, aching muscles or other symptoms of overwork, the pain of these will manifest immediately. Be warned: it is impossible for a slave to gain Minor Charges under the influence of this spell, although oddly enough Significant and Major Charges are unaffected.
Costs 1 Minor Charge

Don’t Make Master Angry: This is the sub’s Minor Blast. It may only be used with weapons that do hand-to-hand damage.
Costs 2 Minor Charges

Voice Of Command: Through their own unthinking devotion, the sub lends their Master an air of authority. At the back of everyone’s mind is the urge to submit to authority, and it is this urge that the slave plays on for the benefit of their Master. When cast, this spell gives the sub’s Master a shift of 10% to any skills depending on authority or force of personality, such as Charm, Intimidate, Shout Down Dissent or others. The slave must be in the Master’s presence to use this spell. It ends as soon as the Master ceases actively exercising the authority this spell has given them.
Costs 1 Minor Charge

Ways And Means: A slave should always be able to follow their Master’s instructions, and a willing slave even more so; however, sometimes the best way to obey instructions is not clear. This spell addresses this issue. When this spell is cast, the sub must have a specific instruction from their Master in mind. The result is that the sub immediately knows the quickest and easiest way to fulfil this instruction, along with details of why this would be best for their Master. However, one concern is left out of this chain of reasoning: the slave’s personal well-being. If the easiest way would get you killed or injured, this spell won’t tell you.
Costs 3 Minor Charges.

Mystic Servitude: This is one of the most popular Subīremantic spells, formalising the sub’s commitment to their Master and eternally linking the two. By casting this spell, the sub becomes their Master’s Minor Proxy. The Master’s Proxy skill is determined in the same way as it would be with a normal Proxy Ritual. Despite being aware of their Proxy status, the slave does not gain the Proxy skill and never will. Only the Master may control the bond, only the Master may use it, and only the Master may break it. If the Master wishes to break the Proxy then the slave may cancel the spell by spending a single Minor Charge.
Costs 5 Minor Charges

Significant Formula Spells:

Soul’s Slave: This spell has exactly the same effect and conditions as Mystic Servitude, except that the spell makes the sub their Master’s Significant Proxy. Cancelling this spell still only costs 1 Minor Charge, and may still only be done at the Master’s behest. If the sub is currently under the effect of the spell Mystic Servitude, the cost of the spell is reduced to 1 Significant Charge.
Costs 2 Significant Charges

Master Of Puppets: This is the souped-up version of Voice Of Command. When cast, it imbues the sub’s Master with a sense of utter authority, making dissent almost impossible. For the next ten minutes, or five rounds in a stressful combat situation, any commands the Master gives will be obeyed instinctively and unthinkingly, any lies will be taken as Gospel truth, and all those who even look at the Master will be overwhelmed by a sudden feeling that this person is their inherent, unquestioned superior. The effects of this spell may be resisted, but will result in a Rank-7 Self check for disobeying someone your mind is screaming at you to bow down to. The Master is instinctively aware of this effect, which may result in Unnatural checks as the situation warrants.
Note that once the spell wears off, people realise what just happened. They really just stopped shooting the man they’d been sent to kill, just because he told them to? They really believed him when he said that their boss was an alien who wanted to eat their brains? Crap! This may result in further stress checks, and means that Masters should be careful when using this to do things that are too outrageous.
Costs 1 Significant Charge.

Ira Dominus: This is the sub’s Significant Blast. It may be used with any weapon.
Costs 1 Significant Charge.

Kraft Durch Arbeit: …Or ‘Strength Through Work’, translated from the German. Despite the vaguely Nazi-sounding name of this spell, it is one that many slaves have been thankful for during their lives. When this is cast, the slave immediately gains a bonus of 30 to their Body stat and to every skill associated with it for the duration of one short (note that word, it’s important), clearly-defined task. ‘Kill Alex Abel’ would work if Alex Abel was in the same room, for example, but wouldn’t work if reaching him would entail travelling across a city. For reference, any task taking more than fifteen minutes of uninterrupted work should be counted as ineligible for this spell, although GMs should use their own judgement on this. The sub does gain extra Wound Points from this spell, although they lose them when the spell wears off. So if you’ve taken wounds that would kill you, then bad luck. They do.
Oh, and just in case you hadn’t already guessed, this task must be given to the slave by their Master.
Costs 2 Significant Charges.

Serve With Your Life: A slave without a Master is a slave without a purpose; this spell means that losing your Master becomes that much less likely. By casting this spell the slave may heal their Master (and only their Master) of an amount of damage equal to the sum of the dice. If the slave is under the effects of the spells Mystic Servitude or Soul’s Slave, they may heal the number rolled instead, but only if they are willing to take half this damage themselves.
Example: adam, subīremancer at large, witnesses Claire, his Mistress, being shot. Running across to her, he casts Serve With Your Life in an effort to save her life. He rolls 34, a solid success. Normally this would only heal 7 points of damage, but adam is bonded to his Mistress by the spell Mystic Servitude. He could still choose to heal only 7 points of damage, but he chooses to allow the spell to take its full effect. Claire is healed of 34 points of damage, and adam suffers 17 points of damage himself.
Costs 3 Significant Charges

Major Effects:

Make the effects of Voice Of Command permanent. Become invulnerable while fulfilling any one task your Master allocates you. Cure your Master of an incurable disease. Force anyone in the world to become your Master’s slave for a day, and not question it afterwards.

What You Hear:

One of the most powerful subīremancers in the world is acting in the service of a massively powerful Amoromancer. It’s a wonderful arrangement. The sub dates his Mistress whenever she tells him to, and they both charge up. She doesn’t care about him enough to criticise him and he’d never dare to get jealous of her flirting with other people, so neither one Taboos the other. And because the more she orders him around the closer they become, she’s on the way to scoring a Major Charge and by extension so is he. By that time, they may be the most dangerous couple in existence.

More than a few subs have begun channelling the Executioner. Their Master orders them to research the target, follow the target and kill the target, and the slave charges up at the same time as he walks the avatar path. There are rumours that a few clued-in Masters are trying to breed themselves a pet Godwalker, and there’s even talk that if they do manage it there’ll be an Ascension War almost immediately.