A school of suicide attempts for miserable magical power.

Misery is your guide and companion.

Your troubles always overwhelmed you, and one time, you finally gave in and ended it. When you were rescued from your suicide attempt, you brought something back with you.

Now you walk the world in a constant gloom of suicidal despair and unconquerable misfortune. You walk in the shadows between complete self-destruction and true life. Some part of you wants to get better and some part of you wants to stay miserable. Meanwhile, your personal life is constantly degenerating from neglect and self-destruction.

Maybe Prozac or faith or something could save you, but you don’t want to be saved. You want to be as unhappy as possible without actually dying. Because that’s the sweet spot where the magic is.

Minor Charge: Attempt suicide, or fake a suicide attempt, and get discovered by someone.

Significant Charge: Perform a suicidal act but get rescued after it’s outside your power to save yourself.

Major Charge: Commit dramatic ritual suicide in public, die, and be reborn by outside magic.

Note on Charges: Whoever rescues or discovers you can’t be immediately present when you’re performing the suicidal act, and can’t know you gain magical power from it.

Taboo: If you ever resolve all your problems, you lose all your charges and can’t gain any more until something goes wrong. Note that this must be a major, objective problem that has nothing to do with your feelings – depression, addiction and madness don’t count. Disease, enemies, crippling poverty, and loved ones in peril all count just fine, though.

Blast: The Orpheomancy blast instantly causes the effects of whatever you did (or tried to do, or pretended to do) to gain the charge spent. Lungs may fill with gas fumes, razor cuts may appear on wrists, poison may fill veins, or falling injuries may occur spontaneously.

Symbolic Tension: The Orpheomancy tries to resolve problems by making them worse.

Random Magic: Misfortune and misery.

Charging Tips: Suicide attempts are pretty easy – you can probably gather 3-5 a week if you really pump it. Serious suicide attempts are tougher, since there’s a real risk you’ll die every time. They’re best left for time when you really need them.

Starting Charges: 5 minor

Minor Formulas

Cry for Attention
1 minor charge
This is the Orpheomancy minor blast. It does damage like a significant blast, but the damage is entirely illusory and goes away in 2 rounds.

Schadenfreude
2 minor charge
Instantly identify the most (subjectively) miserable problem a single target is facing in life.

Goodbye Cruel World
3 minor charges
Write something on a blank piece of paper and think of someone you know. Whatever you write must sincerely sadden or worry you, or the formula fails. The piece of paper appears in that person’s hands, or close nearby.

Unblessing
4 minor charges
Gives a “bad hunch” to the victim. The next time they make any check, they’ll get a 98. The victim knows this.

Brittle Glory
6 minor charges
Makes a target thin-skinned and vulnerable. For the next 24 hours, the target fails all Stress checks, unless they’re too Hardened to make the check.

Significant Formulas

Suicide Pact
1 significant charge
Use when someone makes a voluntary promise to you. Whether they intend to keep it, or whether they know about the magic, doesn’t matter. On any day the target breaks that promise, or intentionally stall doing things they promised to do, they take a single die’s roll of damage overnight in the form of wasting pain, and will realize through their dreams why the pain is happening. This damage doesn’t heal until the promise is completed or you die.

Valley of Death
1 significant charge
Summon and control a demon, as per Entropomancy rules.

End It All
1 significant charge
This is the Orpheomancy significant blast. It does damage equal to the die roll.

Free Your Heart From Shame
2 significant charges
Unleashes a beast created from all your pain, fear and shame. The Shame-beast crawls out of your mouth. It’s as big as you, hunched over and wretched, with purple-black veiny skin, half-formed features, and a creaky miserable voice. The Shame-beast has all your attributes and skills, except instead of Magick it has the Body skill “Lash Out Violently” at the same level, even if this exceeds its Body score. The Shame-beast knows everything you know, and will pursue your goals and needs its own unhealthy, reckless way. While the Shame-beast exists, you feel refreshed, happy and free, and you get a +20% bonus to Mind and Soul and all related skills. Both you and the Shame-beast have no Obsession, Passions or Madness Meters while this formula is in effect. This means you are immune to all Stress checks, but you also can’t use avatar or adept skills. Lasts 24 hours or until the Shame-beast is killed.

Share the Experience
3 significant charges
Give a misfortune to someone else, permanently. One external problem you have is transfered to your victim. This could be a dying husband, a failing business, a giant debt to the mob, or whatever. Reality rewrites itself so that victim suffers the problem and you don’t. You and the target will remember the old version, but others will not. It’s very possible to violate taboo with this formula.

Major Effects
Raise the dead. Rearrange the troubles of a group of people. Change all of someone’s Madness Meters to your whim. Understand every aspect of a complex tragedy. Gain a permanent retinue of subservient demons.