Progression

Because the Academy environment is grueling, the ultimate currency for progression is Time in fiction. Growth comes from study, danger, relationships, and hard breakthroughs — this is the advancement half of Core Rules.

The Daily Time Slots

Each day is divided into 3 Time Slots:

• Morning (Standard Studying): Dedicated to Academy classes, structured magical theory, and core academics.
• Afternoon (Hybrid): Students are free to use Academy facilities, socialise/network, or begin their own activities.
• Night (Exploring): Dedicated to progressing the plot, off-campus activities, or resting.

Every slot you spend huddled in a library or sweating in a training room is a slot not spent tracking down cultists or traversing dangerous areas.

Study Points (SP) - "The Grind"

Study Points represent repeated training, classes, supervised drills, and practical shaping work.

How to Earn SP:

• Session Reward: 2 to 3 SP per session (a week or two of in-game study and survival).
• Base Study Yield: Spending a Time Slot studying alone or attending a standard class grants 1 SP towards a specific goal.

What SP Buys (The Costs):

• Increase an Attribute (Mental, Physical, Social, Magical): New Rating × 3 SP.
• Increase a Core School (1-5): New Rating × 4 SP. This advances that school's Tiered Technique Glyph access.
• Increase a Support School (Alchemy or Artifice) (1-5): New Rating × 4 SP. This advances recipe/engraving complexity access and support reliability options (not Technique Glyph tiers).
• Increase an active Specialization Doctrine (1-5): New Rating × 4 SP.
• Spell Clock Research (Downtime): spend 1 to 2 SP to mark 1-2 segments on a pattern's Spell Clock via Research Matrix (the shortcut to Mastery).
• Tune a Mastered Spell (Downtime): spend 1-2 SP via Research Matrix to personalize a Mastered formula — shave a tick, add or swap a tag, rewrite its risk signature, or erase a flaw. The player chooses what makes the spell theirs.
• Stabilization: Mastery comes from practice — fill a pattern's 4-segment Spell Clock by casting it successfully, or accelerate it through Research Matrix.

Insight Points (IP) - "The Epiphany"

If SP is time, IP is breakthroughs. You cannot become an Archmage just by sitting in a library for 100 years; you have to push your limits, fight for your life, and uncover the secrets of the world. IP is a rare, narrative currency.

How to Earn IP:

• Solving a Mystery: Discovering a major clue.
• Surviving a Deadly Threat: Defeating or surviving an encounter with a boss-level monster, or an Archmage.
• Major Milestones: 1 IP awarded at the end of a highly successful session.

What IP Buys (The Costs):

• Unlock a Specialization Doctrine (1 IP): Requires Level 3 in parent Core School.
• Research Breakthrough (1 IP + SP): Required for forbidden, cross-school, or unstable glyph work.
• Rare/Forbidden Glyph Access (1 IP + SP): Unlocks eligibility for rare leads and high-risk learning tracks.
• Purchase a Trait / Merit (1 IP): Unlock new persistent trait or remove a major flaw.
• Break the Level 5 Cap (1 IP + SP): Required to reach level 5 in any attribute or magic school.

Technique Glyph Access Ladder (Tier 0-5)

Glyph progression is cumulative and school-specific (see Magic System).

• Tier 0: your school's native starter glyph(s)
• Tier 1: +1 native glyph (3 total)
• Tier 2: +Kreis (4 total)
• Tier 3: +2 school-signature glyphs (6 total)
• Tier 4: +1 specialization glyph (7 total)
• Tier 5: +1 capstone glyph (8 total)

School Tier Perks (Rank-Up Choice)

Whenever you increase a Core School, choose one perk tied to that school's fiction:

• Prepared Geometry: mark +1 school-aligned Ready Glyph at scene start.
• Clean Channel: once per scene, reduce one school-aligned cast by 1 Mana Tick (minimum 1).
• Stable Weave: once per scene on a 7-9 school-aligned cast, narrow collateral severity while keeping pressure active.
• Signature Discipline: gain one school-specific tag permission in fiction (positioning unlock, not a roll bonus).

Guardrails

• Trigger-limited perks can activate only once per scene.
• Keep consequences fiction-first; no stacked arithmetic mini-game.
• Perks expand options and reliability, not raw damage inflation.

Support School Tier Perks (Rank-Up Choice)

Whenever you increase Alchemy or Artifice, choose one support perk tied to your fiction:

• Efficient Benchwork: once per crafting attempt, ignore a minor material inefficiency or prep delay.
• Stable Hand: once per scene, reduce one support-related complication severity while keeping pressure active.
• Deep Inventory: gain one additional fiction-first permission tag for reagents, tools, or workshop leverage.
• Reliable Output: once per attempt on a 7-9 support crafting roll, trade one severe drawback for a contained drawback.

Support Guardrails

• Support perks are once-per-scene/attempt unless stated otherwise.
• They increase reliability, prep options, and positioning rather than replacing live casting.
• Support school cap matches Core School cap (1-5), but unlocks different benefits.

Scene Readiness Guardrail

At scene start, each caster marks: Ready Glyphs = 2 + highest of (Calculation, Memory)

Known glyphs beyond your ready set are still usable, but shaping them in tense scenes applies one extra mixed-result pressure.

Mastered spells are exempt from non-ready pressure — they are always considered ready (see Spell Clock). You hold a number of Mastered spells in active recall equal to your Memory; swap them from your Grimoire only when safe and calm.

Progression-Casting Bridge

Progression plugs into live casting through four hooks:

• Discovery: use Decode the Pattern to pursue new glyph leads under uncertainty.
• Stabilization: use Spell Clocks to master recurring patterns through practice; use Research Matrix between scenes to accelerate or design them.
• Mastery Clocks: track each target through Glyph Leads and a Glyph Mastery clock.
• Pressure Rule: out-of-tier or unstable use adds exactly one extra pressure source.

This note defines progression economy and gates; live scene casting procedure remains in Magic System and Shape the Matrix.

In-Fiction Glyph Acquisition

Characters can learn glyphs through:

• mentors and formal instruction,
• recovered scrolls/archives/artifacts,
• experimentation and dangerous field trials,
• negotiated social leverage.

Glyph Leads and Mastery Clock

• Create a Glyph Leads track and a 4-segment Glyph Mastery clock per target glyph.
• Completing the clock allows stable usage once fiction and progression tier permit.

Decode the Pattern (Learning Move)

When you study, test, or bargain for a glyph pattern under real uncertainty, roll 2d6 + Calculation:

• 10+: mark 2 segments, or mark 1 and gain clean provisional use.
• 7-9: mark 1 segment and choose a cost (debt, strain, unstable side effect, unwanted attention, time loss).
• 6-: mark 1 segment, and the GM makes a hard move tied to that glyph's risk profile.

Out-of-Tier Provisional Use

If you use a learned-but-unstabilized or out-of-tier glyph, apply exactly one extra pressure source:

• +1 Mana Track tick cost, or
• mandatory mixed-result complication, or
• temporary instability clock.

Acquisition Gating (All Active)

• Rarity bands: common leads every 1-2 sessions, rare every 3-5 sessions, forbidden by major arc milestone.
• Faction/mentor lock: some glyphs require specific instruction access or obligations.
• Research prerequisite: rare/forbidden glyphs require one breakthrough before standard mastery clock progress.

Specialization Translation (Glyph Doctrines)

Each specialization (Glyph Doctrine) grants:

• one doctrine move,
• one native glyph behavior upgrade,
• one domain permission expansion.

Unlock gate remains: Level 3 in parent school + 1 IP.

Doctrine moves follow the Suppressing Fire pattern — fictional trigger, 2d6 + school-appropriate stat, 10+ bonus pick, 7-9 cost pick, 6- hard move — one per specialization page.

End-of-Session Procedure

At the end of every session, close the loop on the fiction and the numbers:

• Award SP. 2-3 Study Points and Insights per session (see §2). Note what each is earmarked toward.
• Award IP. 1 Study Points and Insights on a major milestone — a mystery solved, a deadly threat survived, a breakthrough (see §3).
• Mark clocks. Any Spell Clock segments earned by successful casts this session; any glyph-learning progress (see §8 and Decode the Pattern).
• Update Bonds. Add, deepen, or resolve one Bond per player if the fiction supports it.
• Log knowledge. What did the players learn that carries into next session — people, places, facts, open threads?

The full GM-side ritual lives in GM Framework — this is the player-facing closing of the bookkeeping.