A revolver is a machine. It fires the same way every time. An enchanted blade is a conversation — between steel and Aether, between the wielder and something old and strange. Sometimes the blade listens. Sometimes it has its own ideas.

The Fundamental Divide

Not all magical objects are created equal. The difference between an enchanted artifact and a ward or potion is not one of degree — it is one of kind.

	Artifacts	Wards & Potions
Nature	Aether bonded into the object — it becomes magical	Aether stored in a vessel — energy that slowly leaks out
Duration	Permanent	Decays over time
Rarity	Exceptionally rare	Uncommon but achievable

An enchanted sword is not a sword with a spell stored inside it. The Aether has been bonded into the blade’s nature — the steel is magical. A ward or potion is merely bathed in Aether — energy poured into a vessel that slowly leaks away. One is a transformation. The other is a battery.

Enchanted Artifacts

An enchanted artifact is a mundane object that has been permanently imbued with a magical property through the Enchant spell (Ley Weaving, Ritual). The object retains its normal function and gains a mystical tag — a magical property that triggers on use. A sword, a shield, a lock, a healer’s scalpel, a singer’s lute — any handcrafted object can become an artifact.

Handcrafted, Not Manufactured

The Aether bonds with objects that have deep roots in human understanding — things that people have made by hand, used, trusted, and believed in for centuries. A sword is ancient. A hammer is ancient. A ring, a cloak clasp, a mortar and pestle — these are objects humanity has shaped and understood for millennia. Collective belief has soaked into their very concept, and the Aether responds to that accumulated resonance.

Manufactured objects — factory-produced, mechanically complex, assembled from interchangeable parts — lack those roots. People use a revolver without truly understanding propellant chemistry or barrel metallurgy. They trust the mechanism without grasping the nature. The Aether finds nothing to grip. This is the same principle that makes complex technology more vulnerable to Aetheric disruption — the newer and more manufactured a thing is, the less the world’s primal forces recognize it.

A sword forged last week by a skilled smith can be enchanted — the act of hand-forging connects it to the same deep tradition of shaped steel that humans have known for thousands of years. A factory-stamped blade from an industrial press cannot — it was produced, not made.

One enchantment per item. The Aether bonds once. An object carries one mystical tag. This keeps artifacts distinct — “the Thundering blade” is a named thing, not a stack of bonuses. “The Whispering Lock” is a specific artifact, not a lock with three spells bolted on.

Using an Enchanted Item

Every time an enchanted item’s magical property matters — a weapon striking, a lock resisting a pick, a healer’s scalpel meeting a wound — the enchantment has to wake up. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t.

For enchanted weapons in combat, this works like firing a gun: first roll your attack (Melee or Ranged as normal), then check Magical Reliability (roll d100 against the item’s rating — under means the mystical tag triggers, over means the weapon hits but the magic stays quiet). The weapon always works as a weapon. The enchantment is the part that can fail.

For non-weapon artifacts, the GM calls for a Magical Reliability check whenever the enchantment is tested — when someone tries to pick the enchanted lock, when the scout’s warded cloak is all that stands between her and a search party, when the healer reaches for an artifact scalpel with a dying patient on the table. The stakes make the roll matter.

Magical Reliability

Every enchanted artifact has a Magical Reliability rating — how resistant the enchantment is to Galvanic disruption. Higher is better. A Spectacular enchantment at 95 almost always fires in neutral territory. A Weak enchantment at 80 fizzles one time in five even on a good day — and in a Galvanic zone, it barely works at all.

The base rating is set when the Enchant spell is cast. The better the casting result, the more stable the bond:

Enchantment Tier	Base Magical Reliability
Weak	80
Standard	85
Strong	90
Spectacular	95
Pre-Tear	98

Effective Magical Reliability = Base + (net Aetheric balance × 2)

The local Aetheric balance shifts these numbers. In a Wild Zone, where the Aether runs thick, enchantments strengthen — the magic has more to draw on. In a Galvanic zone, where the Engine dominates, enchantments weaken as the industrial resonance smothers the Aether bond.

Net Balance	Eff. Weak (80)	Disruption%	Eff. Spectacular (95)	Disruption%
+15 (Wild Zone)	110	0%	125	0%
+10 (heavy magic)	100	0%	115	0%
+5 (moderate magic)	90	10%	105	0%
0 (neutral)	80	20%	95	5%
−5 (moderate Galvanic)	70	30%	85	15%
−10 (heavy Galvanic)	60	40%	75	25%
−15 (Galvanic Zone)	50	50%	65	35%
−20 (Deep Galvanic)	40	60%	55	45%

At the extremes, the math resolves itself. An artifact at effective 100 or higher cannot be disrupted — the Aether is so dense that the Engine can’t touch it. An artifact at effective 0 or below simply does not function — the Galvanic field has drowned the magic entirely. Between those poles, every swing is a question: will the enchantment wake up this time?

Disruption Severity

When an enchantment fails to activate, it doesn’t always fail quietly. Most of the time the magic just doesn’t fire — the blade hits, the thunder stays silent, no harm done. But sometimes the disrupted energy goes somewhere it shouldn’t. Roll d10 when a Magical Reliability check fails.

d10	Severity	Effect
1–5	Fizzle	Enchantment doesn’t trigger this use. The item functions normally as a mundane object.
6–8	Backfire	The mystical tag misfires — the effect hits you, an ally, or the environment. GM determines the most dramatically appropriate victim.
9	Burnout	Enchantment goes dormant. Magical Reliability drops by 10 until the item is re-attuned (10 minutes of rest, no cost).
10	Shatter	The enchantment is permanently destroyed. The Aether bond breaks. The item reverts to mundane. Re-enchanting requires casting Enchant from scratch.

In Galvanic Zones (net −10 or worse): add +2 to the severity roll. Backfire, Burnout, and Shatter become significantly more likely. Using an artifact in heavy Galvanic territory risks losing the enchantment forever. Put it away.

Mystical Weapon Tags

Every enchanted item carries a mystical tag that describes what the enchantment actually does. A Thundering blade hits with concussive force. A Keen edge finds gaps in armor that shouldn’t exist. A Silent weapon kills without a whisper. Each tag has four tiers of power, locked permanently when the Enchant spell is cast — the better the casting result, the more potent and reliable the enchantment.

Creating a specific enchantment requires the enchanter to know the source spell behind the tag in addition to Enchant itself. You can’t weave thunder into a blade without understanding Force. This means an enchanter needs at minimum two magic schools — Ley Weaving for Enchant, plus access to the source spell for the desired tag.

Tag	Source Spell	Weak	Standard	Strong	Spectacular
Thundering	Force (Aetheric)	+1d4 dmg, push 1 step	+1d6 dmg, push 1 step	+1d8 dmg, push 2 steps	+1d10 dmg, push 2 steps, stun
Elemental [type]	Elemental Manip. (Aetheric)	+1d4 [type] dmg	+1d6 [type] dmg	+1d8 [type] dmg	+1d10 [type] dmg
Keen	Alter Property (Transmutation)	+1 armor piercing	+2 armor piercing	+3 armor piercing	+3 AP, crit range +5%
Homing	Foresight (Divination)	+5% to hit	+10% to hit	+10%, ignore cover	+15%, ignore cover
Venomous	Wither (Vivimancy)	1d4 dmg next round	1d6 dmg next round	1d6 for 2 rounds	1d8 for 2 rounds
Shielding	Shield (Warding)	+5% parry	+10% parry	+10% parry, +1 soak	+15% parry, +2 soak
Silent	Dampen (Ley Weaving)	Strikes silent	Strikes silent	Silent, no glow	Silent, no glow, pain delayed 1 rd

GMs and players can propose additional mystical tags based on known spells. If a spell concept can plausibly be bonded into an object, it’s a candidate. The table above covers the most common combat enchantments; use it as a template for other items.

Aetheric Accumulation

Every time an enchantment fires — every time the Thundering blade booms or the Keen edge finds its impossible sharpness — it pushes +1 Aetheric accumulation into the local environment. Fizzles generate nothing; the magic has to actually activate to leave a mark. But a party swinging enchanted weapons through a prolonged fight is steadily tipping the Aetheric balance toward magic, whether they realize it or not. That’s good for the enchantments. It’s bad for anyone counting on a firearm.

Attunement

An owner can attune to an enchanted artifact, forging a personal bond between themselves and the Aether woven into the object. The process takes about an hour of quiet focus — and costs 1 XP, which makes it a real sacrifice. That experience could have gone toward improving a skill or learning a new spell. Instead, it goes into the bond.

The payoff is significant. An attuned artifact gains +10% Magical Reliability for its bonded owner — which can mean the difference between an enchantment that fizzles at the wrong moment and one you can count on when it matters.

More importantly, an attuned artifact protects itself. If someone else picks it up and tries to use it, the enchantment turns on them — the source spell’s misfire effect triggers against the unauthorized user every time they attempt to activate the tag. A thief who grabs a Thundering sword gets a face full of concussive Force. Someone who picks up an Elemental [fire] blade burns their own hands. The enchantment is unharmed. The thief is not. The artifact doesn’t break — it bites.

A new owner can replace an existing bond by paying 1 XP and performing the attunement ritual themselves. The previous bond dissolves.

The Enchant Spell

Enchant is a Ley Weaving ritual — hours or days of sustained focus, channeling the Aether into an object until it becomes part of the thing’s nature. It demands a rare combination of talents: the caster must know Enchant (Ley Weaving), must have access to the source spell for the desired tag (scholarly casters need the specific spell in their book; wild casters have access through their school), and must have Craft at 2+ to prepare the vessel properly. The object itself must be handcrafted — forged, carved, woven, or shaped by human hands. Manufactured objects cannot hold the bond.

The process has three stages. First, prepare the vessel — a Craft check to ensure the object can accept the enchantment. If the vessel isn’t right, the materials are wasted. Second, cast Enchant — roll against your casting target. Your margin of success determines the tier, which permanently locks the tag’s power level and the item’s Magical Reliability. Third, check for backlash. Backlash during enchanting is especially dangerous — if it triggers, roll d100: on 50 or under, the object is destroyed, the magic destabilizes, and the caster is left with wreckage and bruises.

Tier	Exhaustion	Ritual Time	Result
Weak	6 EP	2 hours	Tag at Weak, Magical Reliability 80
Standard	10 EP	4 hours	Tag at Standard, Magical Reliability 85
Strong	16 EP	1 day	Tag at Strong, Magical Reliability 90
Spectacular	24 EP	2–3 days	Tag at Spectacular, Magical Reliability 95
Misfire	6 EP	—	Object destroyed. Caster takes 1d6 damage.

Scholarly casters can choose a lower tier than achieved. Wild casters get what they get.

Wards & Charms

A ward is Aether stored in a location, object, or threshold. Unlike artifacts, wards are not permanent — the magic leaks out over time, like heat from a cooling stone. Eventually, it runs out. This makes wards more common than artifacts but less valuable. They are the everyday magic of the world — camp perimeters, safehouse protections, concealed vaults.

Wearable charms — enchanted amulets, rings, inscribed tokens — are simply wards you carry on your body. Same rules, same decay, portable form factor. A charm that boosts your aim is just an alarm ward’s cousin, worn around your neck instead of inscribed on a doorframe.

Ward Types

Type	What It Does
Alarm	Alerts the caster when a threshold is crossed or a condition is met. The alert can be a silent mental ping, an audible chime, or a visible flash — obvious but unmissable.
Barrier	Blocks physical or magical passage through a threshold. Can be keyed to allow specific people through while stopping everyone else. Strength ranges from “slows you down” to “impassable wall of force.”
Concealment	Hides an area from magical detection. Divination spells like Detect and Reveal return nothing — the warded area appears magically blank. Doesn’t make anything physically invisible, just magically opaque.
Protection	Provides damage reduction or resistance to everyone inside the warded area. A well-warded safe room might grant +2 soak against magical damage or impose −10% on attackers’ rolls within its boundary.
Trap	Stores an offensive spell that triggers when a condition is met — someone crosses a threshold, touches a warded object, speaks a word. The trapped spell fires once, then the ward is spent.
Charm	A portable ward worn on the body — amulets, rings, bracers, inscribed tokens. Provides a passive effect while worn: a skill boost, damage resistance, sharpened senses, minor utility. Requires 10 minutes of contact to attune.

Ward Duration — Decay

Every ward is on a clock. How long the magic holds depends on how much power was poured into it — a quick field ward scratched into a doorframe might last a few days, while a masterwork ward laid by a skilled Warder over the course of a week can stand for years.

Effort Level	Creation Tier	Creation Time	Duration	Typical Use
Field	Weak	10–30 min	1d6 days	Camp perimeter, quick alarm, temporary charm
Prepared	Standard	2–6 hours	1d6 weeks	Safehouse, supply cache, working charm
Ritual	Strong	1–3 days	1d6 months	HQ protection, long-term concealment, quality charm
Masterwork	Spectacular	1+ week	1d6 years	Stronghold ward, institutional protection, prized charm

The creator rolls the d6 openly at creation time and knows the result. A field ward that rolls a 2 lasts two days — use it or lose it. A masterwork ward that rolls a 5 stands for five years — a point of pride.

Breaking Wards

The clean way to break a ward is to Unbind it — cast the Unbind spell at the ward’s effective tier or higher, and the ward unravels silently. A Weak ward falls to any successful Unbind. A Spectacular ward demands a Spectacular Unbind, which means a very skilled caster with a very good roll. Matching power with power.

The other option is Galvanic weakening. Every 5 points of net Galvanic shift drops a ward’s effective tier by one. Drag enough generators and capacitors into the area, shift the balance hard enough, and even a Spectacular ward becomes breakable — or collapses on its own.

Net Balance	Spectacular	Strong	Standard	Weak
0 (neutral)	Spectacular	Strong	Standard	Weak
−5 (moderate)	Strong	Standard	Weak	Fails
−10 (heavy)	Standard	Weak	Fails	Fails
−15 (Galvanic Zone)	Weak	Fails	Fails	Fails
−20 (Deep Galvanic)	Fails	Fails	Fails	Fails

This approach is anything but subtle. The Galvanic gear is loud, heavy, and obvious. Anyone with magical sensitivity can feel the balance shifting — it’s like watching someone drain a lake. But it works, and sometimes brute-force logistics is easier than finding a caster powerful enough to Unbind a masterwork ward.

Wards that fail from Galvanic drowning stop functioning, but they aren’t destroyed. When the Galvanic shift subsides, the ward resumes — if it still has decay time remaining. Turn off the generators and the door locks itself again.

Finding wards before you walk into them is its own challenge. The Detect spell (Divination) reveals a ward’s presence and general nature. Reveal shows exact boundaries and trigger conditions. For those without magic, a Voltaic Lantern makes ward residue glow faintly under its beam — not as precise as Divination, but it doesn’t require a caster.

Wards cannot be physically destroyed. A warded door doesn’t break when you hit it with an axe — the ward is the protection. The magic reinforces the object it’s placed on. A Spectacular Barrier ward on a wooden gate means that gate stands until someone deals with the ward, regardless of how many times you swing. You need magical means to get past it.

Unbind permanently destroys the ward — the magic unravels and is gone. Galvanic weakening just puts the ward to sleep. The Aether goes dormant, the effect stops, and you can walk through the door or past the alarm. But when the Galvanic shift subsides — when someone turns off the generators or you move them away — the ward wakes back up. The magic was suppressed, not destroyed. Plan accordingly.

Potions

Potions are the most common magical objects in the world — and the most perishable. A single-use consumable that delivers a magical effect when drunk, applied, or thrown. Any caster with basic alchemical knowledge and a few hours can brew one. The catch is that they don’t last. A potion is Aether in a bottle, and the bottle leaks.

Healing Potions

Potency	Tier	Effect	Shelf Life
Minor	Weak	Heal 1d6 HP, stop bleeding	1d6 days
Moderate	Standard	Heal 2d8 HP, knit minor fractures	1d6 weeks
Major	Strong	Heal 3d10 HP, mend broken bones	1d6 months
Critical	Spectacular	Heal 4d12 HP, purge disease, stabilize dying	1d6 years

Fortifying Potions

Potency	Tier	Effect	Effect Duration	Shelf Life
Minor	Weak	+5% to one skill	1 hour	1d6 days
Moderate	Standard	+10% to one skill OR +1 attribute for skill checks	4 hours	1d6 weeks
Major	Strong	+15% to one skill OR +1 attribute (all uses)	8 hours	1d6 months

Curative Potions

Type	Tier	Effect
Antidote	Weak	Neutralize one specific poison (brewed for that poison)
Panacea	Standard	Cure one disease or infection
Cleansing Draft	Strong	Remove one magical contamination or curse

Utility Potions

Type	Tier	Effect	Effect Duration
Night Eye	Weak	See in darkness as if dimly lit	4 hours
Iron Skin	Standard	+2 armor soak (skin hardens)	1 hour
Featherfall	Weak	Negate fall damage	10 minutes
Silence	Standard	Suppress sound within arm's reach	30 minutes
Aqua Lung	Standard	Breathe underwater	2 hours

These tables are starting points, not a complete catalog. Any spell effect that can plausibly be bottled is a candidate for a potion — if a player proposes something reasonable and a caster has the right skills, let them brew it.

Expired Potions

Past its shelf life, a potion doesn’t go inert — it goes unpredictable. The Aether hasn’t vanished; it’s just lost its structure. Drinking an expired potion is a gamble. Roll d100.

d100	Result
01–50	Reduced effect (half potency)
51–80	No effect
81–95	Wrong effect (GM picks something thematically related but unhelpful)
96–100	Harmful (treat as a spell misfire)

Economy

Potions aren’t mass-produced, but they are traded. A healer in a magical neighborhood might sell remedies alongside mundane medicines. Adventuring Societies trade them as favors or currency. A skilled brewer with a reputation can charge handsomely for commissioned work. Abandoned laboratories sometimes yield a few surviving bottles — if the shelf life hasn’t run out. There’s no alchemy industry, no chain of potion shops — but where there are casters, there is commerce.

Pre-Tear Artifacts

Most artifacts in the world are recently made — experimental, first-generation work. But there are exceptions.

Rare objects exist that predate the Tear. A sword that hums with energy, sealed in a vault unopened for two centuries. An amulet from a shipwreck older than anyone's grandparents. A ward-stone in ruins that predate the Veil's thinning by decades — or centuries.

Nobody can explain them. Magic is supposed to be new. These objects shouldn't exist. Was magic here before the Tear, hidden? Did someone know it was coming? Are these objects even human-made?

What makes them mechanically distinctive is their stability. Pre-Tear artifacts have Magical Reliability 98 — nearly immune to disruption even in heavy Galvanic territory. Whoever made them knew something that modern enchanters don’t. They may carry effects that don’t map to any known spell, or multiple enchantments on a single object — something that should be impossible. Finding one changes a campaign. Understanding one might change the world.