The Specialist Mage

One school, mastered. The rest, barely. Your magic runs narrow and deep.

You are a 2nd-year student at the Cyorian Royal Magical Academy.

1. Origins

Pick 1. Your origin grants a Connection — a person, organization, or access you can leverage during play.

2. Attributes

Fixed array. Sum +4.

Mana: 4 + Highest of (Calculation, Finesse, Willpower) = [7] Boxes Ready Glyphs: 2 + Highest of (Calculation, Memory) = [4]

3. Starting Schools

• 2 dots in your chosen school — pick one of the 8 core schools (Projection, Alteration, Dimensionalism, Divination, Illusionism, Animation, Abjuration, Soul Magic). Grants 2 Spell Formula from that school.
• 0 dots everywhere else. Other schools come hard to you — the GM will pace your growth accordingly.

Baseline casting starts with your school-native starter glyph. You may hold a number of Mastered Spells in active recall equal to your Memory attribute.

4. Playbook Moves

Signature Move (auto-granted)

Mother Tongue: When you Shape the Matrix using your chosen school, you may push one tag past your Calculation limit without triggering Push the Matrix. The fiction still honors your school's limits — this is reach, not law-breaking.

Choose 2 of 6

• Signature Spell: Choose one formula in your chosen school. It is always considered Mastered (even beyond your Memory limit) and costs 1 less Mana tick (minimum 1).
• Foreign Ground: When you cast outside your chosen school, the GM may always offer "your spell destabilizes" as the complication on a 7-9, even when it wouldn't otherwise fit.
• Rival's Respect: When you demonstrate mastery of your chosen school in front of another practitioner of that school, roll +Willpower. 10+: you choose what they offer — their respect, a useful contact, or a secret technique. 7-9: they're impressed, but they choose the terms: an enemy who wants to beat you, or an ally who wants something from you. 6-: your display has an embarrassing flaw, and the GM makes a hard move.
• Tunnel Vision: Your obsession is visible. When you're deep in your school — extra study, all-night practice — you may spend extra Time Slots on it without earning Violations, but the GM will have people notice your distance. Take +1 forward on Research Matrix in your chosen school while you're in that state.
• Just Watch This: When you have time to prepare an elaborate demonstration of your school, roll +Finesse. 10+: the audience is awed — take +1 forward with them for the scene, and choose one observer who now respects you. 7-9: they're awed, but someone in the crowd now knows exactly what you can do — the GM chooses who and why it matters. 6-: the demonstration goes wrong in front of everyone, and the GM makes a hard move.
• The One True Way: When you argue magical theory with another mage, roll +Calculation. 10+: you're right — or at least irrefutably certain — and the room knows it. 7-9: you win, but the GM chooses whose reputation is dented: theirs, or yours for being insufferable. 6-: you're wrong in public, and a rival knows it — the GM makes a hard move.

5. Starting Gear

• Academy robes and your own Grimoire of notes
• A cheap but functional Standard Focus
• A copy of your school's canonical text, heavily annotated
• A letter of recommendation from a previous tutor

6. Bonds

Format: "I have a bond of [Emotion/Concept] with [NPC Name] because [Reason]."

• Someone here thinks your focus is arrogance because...
• Someone here once beat you in your own school, and you can't forget it because...

7. Advancement

Fiction-first milestone hooks — the GM can use them when you spend SP/IP or when a chapter closes. Growth shows in the story, not on a table.

• One school, mastered. What is the one thing your school cannot do — and how much of your identity are you willing to stretch to cover it?
• The lonely peak. Who are you leaving behind as you outpace them? What would they have to do to catch up?
• The cost of precision. When a sloppy, broad solution would save the day, can you accept it?