Alrighty, so was on trains/buses today and started piecing together a new wiccan tert.

Now, whether or not Estarra will ok this is still a question, but what I would like to see is specs for each guild.

The base skill would have simplistic ritual actions that call up lesser spirits.

The base skill would look like this:
Burning - Burn herbs within a flame to elicit the correct effects
Chanting - Weave your rites with the power of the spoken word
Imbue - Infuse objects with your will
Dancing - The rythmic motions of the forestal rites
Embrace - Ask the spirits to touch your spirit, if you are worthy.
Sketching - Ancient sigils and scripts to enhance your work.
Duality - Two elements can call up unexpected allies.

Rituals
Sanctify - Cleanse a location for your workings.
Blessing - Ask a spirit to give its blessing to a mortal or object.
Calling - Call a spirit to join you.
Farewelling - Thank a spirit for its time and bid it farewell.

So far the Specs are looking like this
Grimoire - Mark a book as your grimoire. (Bookbound books, MagicTomes work)

Circles - The deepest powers of Mother Moon/Night are available to you.(preferably changed to a fae word)
mooncircle cast - needs athame
mooncircle open
mooncircle close door

Handfast - With the blessings of the spirits, let their hearts be one.
Requires either moon/night + stag/crow or all spirits(see below)

TrueEmbrace - Those you have embraced will walk with you through death

Embodiment - Nightwraiths/Moonchildren will fear the might of your champion.
The champion must be a Serenguard(maybe shofangi) similar to RighteousArms except for someone else. Can only have one champion.



Some notes a circle that has been cast would function similarly to a tent room with one... fairly major difference. If you enter it when it is not closed (this is the default state, a "door" can be opened with the relevant command.) the circle is weakened with a high chance of being destroyed (worse than the next thing).
Also, if you open a circle while you have spirits called within it... bad stuff happens relative to the strength contained within it.

Generic spirits can be called when only the base is owned and they only remain for a short time. Once you gain circle you can make the circle which contains their energy allowing you more time and the ability to call stronger spirits.


The spirits you would call when you have the spec would be along the lines of(for Moon):
* The Lords and Ladies of the Lunar Phases
* The Keepers
* The Avatars
* Mother Moon

As a possible expansion, you may invite a member of the relevant guild/order to call one of the following spirits:
* The Aspects of Stag
* The White Hart
* The Ancestors
* Trialante
* Old Man Bull
* An Elder - this is just a notification, though the gods may want to have something more *shrug*.

So you can embrace the moon related spirits, call blessings and the like. But at the same time some of the rituals may need the presence of one of the other spirits. (This could be commune based blessings and the like) This is similar functionally to totems in that when you embrace you get defences or abilities (hence the true embrace as it would take a long time to re-embrace without it) or possibly one shots

The grimoire is intended to be their book of secrets, I threw it in and am still trying to think of ways that it could be involved (probably as a tool)

Also, With the rituals and the spirits I think that they should be hidden from the skill list. The rituals you know will show up once you figure them out, but the spirits are more a case of...
*Try to summon Mother Moon at master.
*Die a horrible moonfirey death.
*Try after learning more.
And as a side note, I believe that the spirits should need to be preceded by appropriate lower "levels". So to summon moon you would need to summon the lords and ladies, then the keepers, then the aspects, then Mother Moon.
Your rank in the skill would also determine its ability to contain the power of the spirits, if you try to summon too much power the circle may shatter and bad stuff happens.


Now I need to go get drunkies, so hopefully there will be some comments when I'm back and soberish. I actually need to figure out what the embraces and blesses do, plus I would like some rituals to be performed while the spirits are present aside from these two options.

I don't like the aspect of having bad things happen if you call up a spirit and don't have the power or ability to control it, or if you mess up. I don't think I ever remember a time in Serenwilde were any of the spirits we work with have been hostile in any way. Why would Mother Moon be killing people who worship her?

She already does that to people that screw up finding the staff bits for the Moon Disk quest, so it's not out of character for her.

^This

It also does not necessarily have to be them consciously wanting to harm you as much as you being overwhelmed by the power in the control case and the reason why all of the steps exist in the mess up case. Personally I saw it as a way to convey a feeling of dangerous powers and a reason for why these particular abilities are not available to everyone.