Not your average fire mages

This was originally part of a set of semi-finished adept schools written to be stereotypically antistereotypical, fire as the healing life force, rather than the destroyer. the other classical elements were also part of the set, and a few other things too. But one school should suffice for now. As always suggestions, comments and criticisms are more than welcome (indeed they are encouraged).

If your looking for a different take on fire magick try
pyromancers or even one part of elemental magick

PYROMANCY

Nicknames – Phoenixes
The phoenixes have been around a relatively long time, but have only recently begun to spread beyond the west pacific. Pyromancers see the truth of fire, that it is the great creator, as well as the great destroyer. It is the crucible of rebirth from which all things grow. In Australia, where pyromancy began, the land needs fire, for without it new trees will not grow, as only the intense heat of fire on a tree’s branches causes the seed pods to unfold, and burns away the secondary shells, leaving the seed behind in the ash, to grow up into the hole in the canopy left by the burnt tree. Many of the plants need fire to cause them to grow, getting bigger, and sturdier (if coated in an inch of charcoal instead of bark). The bushfires are a dynamic force, causing animal populations to flee and spread and find new grounds on which to multiply. A necessary part of nature’s cycle.

Pyromancers see the creation wrought by fires destruction, in the wild and the cities.
The raging fires of smelters destroy coal and ore to create the strong iron with which cities and bridges are built, the calm but intense fires of a potters kiln, churn out the ceramics used for plates and bowls, the controlled, channelled fires of a glass blower churn out glasses, bottles and jars. Even the humble cooking fire creates edible and delicious meals from raw ingredients.

In the glare of a welder’s torch, the warmth of a camp fire and the smoke from coal power stations, pyromancers see the truth of fire, of its power of creation. But fire must destroy in order to create. Be it wood, coal, gas, the turkey killed to make a roast, or the iron mined to forge a sword, fire is the ultimate force of death and rebirth. The sun, the source of all life, is itself just a giant ball of fire, which will eventually consume the earth, destroying everything it has created, to give birth once more to who knows what.

Most dukes unfamiliar with phoenixes expect those obsessed with fire to be hot tempered and rebellious, throwing potent attack magicks. This leaves them completely surprised to encounter a group who are almost exclusively calm, friendly folk, throwing out healing, and helpful magicks. They do tend to radiate a kind of intensity, a strength of purpose in all they do, but it is focused on regrowth, not destruction.

Generate a Minor Charge– Use fire to destroy something and create something. Forge something metal, blow some glass, or fire some pottery (all of which destroy fuel and raw materials). Cooking also counts, but only if it is for a group of people (at least five). The same act of creation done multiple times nets only one charge a day, to get additional charges the creation must be significantly different from others done that day. So a smelter operator gets only one charge, not the fifteen odd he might otherwise get from a days work, but could net additional charges by cooking or blowing glass.
Generate a Significant Charge– Use fire to destroy something and create something on a larger scale. Bushfires in Australia count as they cause new plants to sprout up and grow. Burning down a man’s heavily insured home so he now has enough money to start the business he has been trying to set up would also work. Cooking a major civic banquet or forging an important piece- like Olympic gold medals, critically acclaimed artworks or crucial bridge components like a girder or rivets (one charge per structure, no matter how many girders you forged yourself and this only counts if you are installing them too not just selling steel girders)- might count, assuming the destruction was big enough also- say the furnace was fuelled by antique desks, or hundred dollar bills, the feast included the last of an endangered species or the gold medals were forged using gold from someone’s prized jewellery.
Generate a Major Charge– use fire to create and destroy on a massive scale. Burning down a large part of a city so as to create a booming local construction industry based on the high quality materials they could be mining nearby might count (if you planned and worked to create the construction industry) as would burning down the centre of a nation’s government as part of a rebellion to install a new system of government.
Taboo – Pyromancers are forbidden to create without destroying or destroy without creating. So no killing, unless it is to save someone else’s life. No building a new house, unless you’re ruining the habitat of the local wildlife, etc.
Random Magic Domain – Rebirth and Fire. Growth/creation of one thing at the expense of another.
Symbolic Tension – Pyromancers create to destroy and destroy to create.
Blast – The victim of a pyromancy blast’s skin blackens and bubbles, as if he is within an invisible fire. Additionally, in keeping with the pyromancy focus on regrowth, the phoenix must declare a secondary target (who can be the phoenix, but must not be on their full wound points), who feels a healthy warmth flow through their body as they are healed by an amount of damage based on the kind of blast. If the phoenix can not declare a legitimate secondary target then using the blast taboos him.
Starting Charges – 5 minor charges
Charging Tips – Most pyromancers build pit furnaces in their back yards, and take up forging as a hobby (as well as using the furnace to cook their meals). Doing this could easily net you 2 minors a day or more. Significant charges are harder to get, and generally require more preparation, but a gain enough fame as an artist or chef and you could get a couple of significant charges a month.

Minor Formulas

Fuel – 1 minor charge – This formula allows the phoenix to recharge things with fire. The phoenix starts a small fire, and merely directs the energy output of the fire elsewhere, so as the firewood (or whatever) chars away to ash, instead of heat and light flowing from the fire, the TV seems to have electricity, or the car power and petrol, or the phoenix the energy from a meal and a full nights sleep. Anything with a definable fuel source/energy requirement can be recharged/powered using this effect.
Impassion – 2 minor charges – This formula stokes the fires of emotion in the phoenixes heart. For the next five minutes the phoenix may choose to activate any of his passions at will (without them being triggered). However a secondary target must be declared, this person can not activate their passions during this period. Alternately the phoenix can reverse this effect, allowing someone else to activate their passions at will and preventing him from using his.
Run hot – 2 minor charges – Using this formula, the pyromancer can reach heights of athleticism beyond his own abilities, at the cost of his health. For the sum of the roll in minutes the pyromancer gains +20 to either his Body, Speed or an athletics skill. However energy for this feat comes straight from the phoenixes body, as when the formula is cast he takes the sum of the roll in damage, as his body overheats. For an additional charge this effect can be placed on someone else.
Smoke Signal – 3 minor charges – This formula allows the phoenix to send someone a message through fire’s traditional signal-smoke. The phoenix must take a deep breathe of smoke (from near a fire, a cigarette/pipe or any other source) and breathe it out while saying the message he wants heard. The message will echo from the nearest source of smoke to the target. If no source of smoke exists nearby to the target the spell fails.
For an additional charge the phoenix can control the shape of the smoke that delivers the message, causing it to look like a face, words, a ship passing through a ring, or whatever he chooses. This also allows sending messages to someone who isn’t near smoke. Smoke will well up from out of the ground near the target, and speak your message.
Char – 6 minor charges – This is the pyromancy minor blast. It heals the secondary target a number of wound points equal to the ones die of the spell roll.

Significant Formulas

Back Burn – 1 significant charge – This formula mimics the fireman’s practice of setting controlled fires through the wilderness, to lessen the chances of an uncontrolled fire ever flaring up. When cast, the phoenix takes the sum of the dice in damage, and his skin swells and warps, giving him the appearance of a whole body burn scar. These thick disgusting scars count as body armour, converting any firearms damage into the sum of the roll rather than the total, and halving any hand to hand damage (this has no effect on damage caused by magic). As a side effect the phoenix loses any appearance related skill he has, but gains distracting physique at a rating of half his pyromancy score, due to his grotesque appearance. The bonus of this formula fades after 1 hour, but the scars only fade when the damage is healed. If the damage is healed early, the formula ends early.
For an additional charge this may be cast on someone else.
Restore–1 significant charge – This formula allows the phoenix to heal someone, by burning their property. The item burned has to have belonged to the target, and while it does not have to have been their most prized possession, it can not be something trivial, or something bought just for this effect (GM’s decision). If successful the target heals an amount of damage equal to the sum of the spell roll.
Alternately the pyromancer can knock this up to significant healing (the total of the spell roll) by burning the targets most prized possession. Of course some things are quite hard to burn either practically (like a prized classic car) or morally (say if the target considered his child his most prized possession).
Smelter – 2 significant charges – This formula creates something, by destroying things of equal or greater value. Neither item may be bigger than a motorcycle. The phoenix focuses on what he wants to create and touches the things being destroyed to create it, which flare up in a bright flame, which dies down to reveal the desired object. This can create complex objects (although computers created will have no software installed) but not specific or magickal objects- like the precious book you recently destroyed, your mother’s engagement ring or any artefact. Keys to a specific house would be okay, but not a particular set of keys to that house. The items destroyed must be worth as much or more than the items created are actually worth, not how much they are practically worth (technically door keys are cut for a few dollars, but door keys to Dick Cheney’s house would be worth a lot more. Similarly even though I might only be able to fence a stolen diamond for $3000, if it’s actually worth $6000, then that’s what it’s worth for the purposes of what I can turn it into).
Burn – 4 significant charges – This is the pyromancy significant blast. It heals the secondary target a number of points equal to twice the sum of the roll. If this is higher than the primary target took (say if the roll was 06), then the phoenix takes damage equal to the difference.
Spark of Life – 7 significant charges – This formula is the one that makes pyromancers more popular than any other. It allows the pyromancer to restore life to someone, as long as they died within a number of days equal to the tens place of the pyromancers magick skill. To provide this spark, someone else has to die, burned alive on a pyre they are not tied to or in any way held in (being unconscious does not count as being held, but any physical object or effect that forces the person to stay in the fire ruins the effect). The dead person is revived on a number of wound points equal to the ones die of the magick roll, with no memory of what happened to them after death. The life sacrificed must be of the same species as the one revived (so you can burn a cat to revive your beloved pet, but you must burn a human to revive your wife).

Sample Major Effects
Become the phoenix.
Cause yourself or another to be reborn in a young healthy body (or a young healthy mind).
Transform a house into a rocket.