Certamen
by Anders Sandberg
The rules described for certamen in the Book of Shadows are
complex, dramatic, imaginative - and very unusable. They require
Adepts of all spheres to inscribe the certamen circle, and the
presence of an Adept of Prime for the actual fight. Such
concentrations of magickal skills are rare today, and it seems likely
that they were not that common even during the mythical era.
When mages met in the past, they could not travel far to possibly
hostile chantries to settle their differences. And it would appear
even more unlikely that a highly elaborate system of certamen
would be used by all mages.
This is an attempt to revise the system, to make it more usable.
Certamen
There are two main forms of certamen, the competition and the
struggle (certamen proper and contentio). Competition was mainly
used to establish the occult pecking order by demonstrating who
was the most skilled and powerful mage, while the struggle was a
direct magickal duel between the opponents about more serious
matters.
It should be noted that certamen duels are largely a thing of
the past outside the greater chantries. Today most mages are
more desperate, and important differences are far too often
settled in other, more final ways.
Certamen is most popular among
the Order of Hermes (who often elaborate it into mystical
rituals), the Akashic Brotherhood, the Verbena and the Dreamspeakers.
The Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether have their own versions
like Core Wars or the Battles of Science in the Gernsback Continuum,
while the Cult of Ecstasy and Euthanatos usually regard the whole
thing as a waste of energy.
The Technocracy of course has strict prohibitions against
this kind of frivolity, which might undermine the internal
security of the Union.
The Competition (Certamen Proper)
In the competition, the challenged mage begins by creating a
magickal effect. The challenger then has to outdo him, either by
greater power, skill or style. The competition continues until one
mage is unable to perform a greater feat of magick. In chantries, it
was common (and often demanded) to have an impartial judge who judged
whose magick was the most impressive, but among mages in general the
competition went on until one mage realised that he was beaten.
Quite often the place of the certamen was regulated by chantry rules,
to minimize the risks to the chantry or non-combattants.
The magick has to use the same or higher levels of spheres as last
time, decreasing the power is generally regarded as failure unless it
is done very stylishly. Style is important, especially if the mages
are closely matched. Coincidental effects are often regarded as a bit
unworthy if the opponent uses vulgar magick, but sometimes a
clever coincidence can decide a competition.
System
The challenged mage performs a magickal act. The challenger then
has to do a comparable act that gains more successes than the
challenged, who then has to outdo him and so on. He must use
spheres at the same level or higher than his opponent. If he
continues on the same level, he can either create a new effect,
hoping to overcome the successes of the other, or empower his
previous effect perceptibly (as long as the previous successes + the
new are greater than the opponent's things are going well). Moving
up to the next level of the spheres do not require the mage to gain
more successes as the opponent, as long as the result is perceptibly
more advanced.
Example
Maria Placida of the Order of Hermes competes against Quintus Z of
the Virtual Adepts. She begins by invoking a ball lightening
(incidentally sending harmless but irritating static into the
electronics of Quintus), Forces 3 Prime 2. She gains three successes
and the ball fills the room with eerie glow. Quintus has to do an
effect at least on level 3, and uses Correspondence 3 Forces 2 to
bring in sunlight into the room. He gains three successes, and the
ball lightening is outshined. Maria decides to scale up her effect,
and gains another three successes to scale up the ball lightening to
a roaring sphere. Quintus answers in the same way, and makes the
sunlight blinding with another four successes. Maria, a bit worried
about his skill in Forces uses Forces 4 to make the ball sweep out
through the open window and set fire to an old tree outside, hoping
to create a huge conflagration. She just gains two successes, singing
the tree, but it is a higher sphere so she has not lost and Quintus
now has to do something with a level 4 power. He decides to use
Entropy 4 to turn the tree into dust (which would definitely be
stylish and most likely end the struggle), but only manages one success -
a small twig falls off. Maria
laughs and mockingly asks "Is that all you can do, O Master of the
Digital Web?".
Variations
Among hermetic mages the competition was common
between apprentices, who loved to show off their powers to each
other standing in a ring as a kind of game. When an apprentice
failed, he left the ring and the others continued, until the most
skilled remained.
The masters preferred a more abstract
competition when they met, the competition of secrets. Instead of
doing magick they revealed occult secrets to each other, trying to
reveal a secret so great that the other was unable to beat it. In this
way differences could be settled and information exchanged (or
tricked away from secretive but unwary mages); the trick is to reveal
the right secrets.
The Struggle (Contentio)
In the Struggle, the mages take turns interfering or manipulating
the magick of each other. One mage creates an effect, and the other
seeks to overcome it. This may be done directly, or in more
"civilised" duels (called the philosophical struggle, Contentio Philosophus)
symbolically: the mage shows an effect that could have defeated the
effect, for
example turning into a wolf when the other had turned into a cat.
Unlike the Competition the winner is usually decided by raw occult
strength.
There have been numerous certamina of this kind that has ended in
the death of one of the participants, either deliberately or
accidentally. Sometimes the struggle turns into a real, dirty
magickal fight; this has made many chantries outlaw direct
struggles. By tradition the defeated mage is forced to grant the
winner one service, usually determined beforehand.
Interesting enough, this form of certamen has caught on among the
spirits of the Western Court, possibly due to knighted Masters from
the Order of Hermes. Some spirits may be summoned for a
certamen; either the mage wins and can demand a service, or the
spirit wins and can demand something (this can range from a tasty
mouse to eat over a knight of Quintessence to the mage's firstborn
child). A similar practice occurs among some of the more unwieldy
spirits of the Middle Umbra which the Dreamspeakers have to deal
with.
System
The mages have to create effects which defeat (or could defeat, in
the philosophical struggle) the other's effect. The form of defeat
may be direct (e.g. dissolving a pattern) or indirect, using the result
of the effect (e.g. creating a cat to eat the mouse the other mage
created). Direct effects require more successes than the effect
(using a suitable combination of spheres, for example Prime 4,
Entropy 3 or Forces 4 to destroy a block of metal). Indirect effects
do not require as many successes, but must be able to defeat the
other effect somehow (for example, Matter 2 to create acid or Life 3
Spirit 2 to summon goblin smiths to destroy the metal block). If the
opponent defeats the effect, then the mage have to either admit
defeat or create an effect to defeat the opponent's effect (such as a
barrel of alkaline solution or a goblin-eating Snark to deal with the
aforementioned effects).
Example
Ingiald Skald once trespassed onto the territory of Freya of
Vardaträsk in his quest for the runes of Heimdallr. She challenged
him to certamen; if he won she would tell him the secret of where
to find the runes, if she won he would have to serve her for seven
years. Ingiald threw his staff onto the ground, turning it into a
snake (Matter 3 Life 3). Freya turned into a cat (Life 4) and killed
the snake. Ingiald turned into a fierce wolf (Life 4), but Freya
began to sing a sleep-giving galder-song (Mind 4, 2 successes)
putting wolf-Ingiald to sleep (The rune-mage unfortunately lacked
Mind to do countermagick with). As he awoke, he was fettered by
iron chains and was forced to submit to serving Freya for seven
years (but in the end, he tricked her into revealing where to find
the runes).
Variations
A classic form of the struggle is when the mages turn
into different forms, trying to find a form the foe cannot resist. This
was especially popular among Verbena, and still is used among
Marauders (although the mad mages are unlikely to follow the
same rules as the opponent).