Also known as Tegomancy, Customancy, Praesidimancy, and variations on the words guard, shield, and protect, Wardamancy is the magic of defense against harm. At its most basic (Shield Circle), its spells provide protection from simple hostile magics, rudimentary defense against physical harm, and bars the entrance of hungry ghosts. At higher levels (Tower Circle), it blocks divinations, eliminates more advanced magic, and provides increased protection from mortal weapons. At its pinnacle (Manse Circle), it can wipe away or counter any mortal magic, bestow perfect defenses against physical attacks, and even turn some enemy magics against their wielders.
Wardamancy is most popular in areas where people are unusually superstitious or have regular contact with practitioners of black magic. It is generally regarded as a harmless art, though that does not prevent Dragon Blooded from taking a dim view of magicians who use it to counter their Charms. Wardamancers are often called upon by other mortals to break curses, cast out possessing spirits, and shield warriors in battle.
Copper Countermagic
Cost: 2 or 5 motes
Prerequisite Spells: None
This spell is fast and requires no shaping. The magician can either protect one target within her Compassion in yards from hostile magic for one turn or halt and dispel the effects of a minor hostile magic within (Compassion x 10) yards.
The targeted effect costs 2 motes and requires the magician to concentrate on the magic while its effects last, suffering a -2 penalty on combat, athletics, and similar actions until her next turn. All magic of the First Circle directed at the target until the magician's next turn are snuffed out in a puff of Essence.
The dispelling effect costs 5 motes. One First Circle spell within range is either dispelled (if its effects still linger) or is countered as it is being cast.
Circle of Salt
Cost: 4 motes
Prerequisite Spells: None
This ritual, which requires three hours to perform, wards the area around the magician, to a maximum radius of (Compassion x 10) yards, against entry by Hungry Ghosts. Moreover, creatures slain or buried in the affected area will not rise as hungry ghosts. This spell's magic lasts only for an instant, but its effects are permanent unless great effort to remove the salted soil is taken.
Talisman of Silver and Iron
Cost: 5 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Circle of Salt
Until the end of the scene, one target within (Temperance x 10) yards of the magician becomes resistant to the manipulations of a group of supernatural beings chosen at the time this spell is cast - demons, Fair Folk, elementals and spirits, and the walking dead. Beings of the selected type suffer a dice penalty on all attempts to affect the target equal to the magician's Temperance. Magical beings can sense when an individual is warded against their power and often react with hostility.
Seal the Armor's Gaps
Cost: 6 motes
Prerequisite Spells: None
This spell targets one creature within (Compassion x 10) yards. Until the end of the scene, if the target's soak is equal to or greater than the damage of an attack, the attacker rolls no dice of damage. Moreover, the target gains bashing and lethal soak equal to the magician's Compassion. This protection provided by this spell is ineffective against attacks created of or enhanced by Essence.
Preserve the Valiant Guardian
Cost: 4 motes
Prerequisite Spells: None
This spell is fast and requires no shaping. It can, in fact, be cast as though it were a reflexive Charm or Heroic, though it must be cast before damage is rolled. The damage after soak from one attack against the target - who must be within (Compassion x 10) yards of the magician when this spell is cast - is instead applied to the magician, including health levels of damage, knockdown, and the effects of any applicable Charms or Heroics. The effect is clearly magical, as the wound the target would normally suffer instead appears on the magician's body. It does not allow the magician to soak this damage with armor or even with Stamina. This spell only protects from sudden damage such as that caused by a weapon or a fall. It cannot defend a target from poison, hostile environments, disease, or other damage. This spell persists until its effect is used, the magician chooses to withdraw its protection, or an appropriate Countermagic is applied to dispel it.
Silver Countermagic
Cost: 5 or 10 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Copper Countermagic
This spell is similar to Copper Countermagic except it may be used to block, counter, or dispel any magic of the First or Second Circles. In addition, it may be used to protect against hostile Charms with a minimum Essence of 1 that target the protected creature or, in its more expensive incarnation, dispel or counter one of these Charms.
Ritual of Exorcism
Cost: 8 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Circle of Salt
This ritual takes one hour to perform and drives possessing entities out of a target within (Conviction x 10) yards. This includes spirits using the Possession Charm, Dragon-Blooded using (Sense)-Riding Technique, and magicians using Ride the Beast's Mind. The magician rolls a contested Willpower check against the possessing entity's Permanent Essence. If the magician scores more successes, the possessing entity is driven out of the target - either back into its body or into the surrounding area, depending on the nature of the possession. If the magician botches this roll, the entity may choose to immediately possess the magician, instead, even if it is not normally able to change targets or take possession of an intelligent creature.
Deflective Shield
Cost: 12 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Seal the Armor's Gaps
This spell targets one creature within (Compassion x 10) yards. Until the end of the scene, whenever the target is subjected to an attack that could normally be parried or dodged, if the attacker scores fewer successes on the initial attack roll than the magician's Compassion, this spell turns aside the attack, preventing a hit. This provides no benefit against attacks that score more successes before defense is declared, though shields raise the difficulty of attacks as normal.
Protection from Natural Harm
Cost: 10 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Copper Countermagic
For the next 24 hours, one target - who must be within (Temperance x 10) yards of the magician when this spell is cast - is completely protected from all hostile environmental conditions. She takes no damage from environmental factors and can endure the conditions in an active volcano, at the bottom of the sea, or any other natural environment up to and including the extremes near the Elemental Poles. The target also adds the magician's Temperance to her lethal and bashing soak against all element-based attacks produced by magic, including such effects as lightning bolts, fireballs, and tidal waves. This spell offers no protection from the effects of the Wyld.
Ward against Scrying
Cost: 8 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Silver Countermagic
For the next 24 hours, the magician and all creatures and objects within (Temperance x 10) yards are rendered immune to all mystical perceptions below Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, including both remote viewing (Feeling the Dragon's Bones, for example) and enhanced senses (such as All-Encompassing Earth Sense). The magician may also decide to protect an immobile area with this spell, instead, in which case the spell obscures all those entering the affected area.
Rounding the Corner Disappearance
Cost: 12 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Ward against Scrying
This spell is fast and requires no shaping. If no sentient, material being can currently see him, the magician literally disappears Elsewhere. He reappears a few hours later in what he would likely consider the safest place within his Temperance in miles from the location from which he disappeared. The exact location is up to the storyteller, but if the magician is close to his home, he will almost always appear there.
Gold Countermagic
Cost: 7 or 15 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Silver Countermagic
This spell is similar to Silver Countermagic except it may be used to block, counter, or dispel any magic of the First, Second, or Third Circles. In addition, it may be used to protect against hostile Charms with a minimum Essence of 2 or less that target the protected creature or, in its more expensive incarnation, dispel or counter one of these Charms.
Lance the Essence Boil
Cost: 20 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Gold Countermagic
This spell affects one target within (Compassion x 10) yards. All First, Second and Third Circle magic and all Charms with a minimum Essence of 2 or less affecting the target are immediately dispelled.
Turn Back the Hostile Spell
Cost: 17 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Gold Countermagic
This spell targets one creature within (Compassion x 10) yards. Until the end of the scene, whenever the target is subjected to an attack composed of or enhanced by magic, this spell robs it of potency. Charms with a minimum Essence of 1 and mortal spells below third circle that target the subject directly (Dragon's Suspire, for example) or enhance the potency of a mundane attack (such as Wise Arrow) have their effects inverted. Wise Arrow actually results in the loss of dice on an Archery attack, for example. Magical attacks that require no mundane channel (such as Dragon's Suspire) instead affect the one making the attack, though these attacks can be parried or dodged if it is normally possible to do so.
Banish the Dark Sorcerer's Servant
Cost: 14 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Ritual of Exorcism
This spell automatically sends one Demon of the First Circle within (Conviction x 10) yards back to Malfeas. If used on more powerful demons or materialized spirits (not Elementals, since they are naturally material), these beings must roll their Conviction + Essence against a difficulty equal to the magician's Valor or dematerialize immediately (return to Malfeas, in the case of Demons) provided their Permanent Essence is equal to or lower than the magician's Heroism.
Wind-Dodging Defense
Cost: 14 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Deflective Shield
Until the end of the scene, a target within (Compassion x 10) yards is nearly impossible to strike, for she vanishes Elsewhere whenever an attack would strike her. Opponents attacking the target have only a (their Essence) or (their Heroism), whichever is higher, in 10 chance of successfully striking the target of this spell whenever they attempt to strike her.
Repel the Taint
Cost: 17 motes
Prerequisite Spells: Protection from Natural Harm, Gold Circle Countermagic
For a number of scenes equal to the magician's Compassion, a target within (Compassion x 10) yards and his carried gear is immune to the twisting influence of the Wyld. He will not become mutated, nor will his armor randomly change into a hungry obsidian lion. The inhabitants of the Wyld still pose a threat, as do adverse changes in the environment, but the mutations will not affect the target or his immediate possessions directly as long as this spell lasts.