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Schism/Diedne Magic

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title: Diedne Magic
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**Warning** Players may not want to read this!
However, some PCs are likely to know this, so there would
be no great harm.

# Overview

Diedne is a Mystery Cult, and over the years, they had
acquired a large number of very powerful mysteries.
This is what scared the Tremere so much.

In the aftermath of the War, it is extremely important
for the Quaesitores to destroy all sources of their
Cult Lore and Initiation Scripts, to prevent abuse.
At the same time, there are bound to be clandestine
groups trying to salvage the knowledge for their own
ends.  This includes both the theoretical researchers
with good intention and malevolent and power-hungry magi.

# Mysteries

The Diedne mysteries derive from the pagan pantheon
of the druids.  The mysteries, and in particular
Diedne initiation scripts, are useless for other
Cults, not revering the same Gods.

Over time, Diedne assimilated a range of new Gods
into the pantheon, as they forced new hedge wizards
to join and adopted their magic.  However, this was
only possible with pagan traditions sharing some basic
cosmology with the druidic traditions.  It is not
possible to fuse arbitrary traditions in this way, even
if it is possible in some cases.

## Most important mysteries 

The canon virtue is in fact two major virtues.

+ Major focus with spontaneous magic (Major, Hermetic).
  The weakest art is doubled when casting fatiguing 
  spontaneous magic.
+ Non-fatiguing spontaneous magic (Major, Hermetic).
  The magus can cast spontaneous magic without fatigue,
  and still divide the roll by two instead of five.

Another important major virtue is the beast magic from
*The Tempest*, albeight partially forgotten by the Schism
War in 2ed canon.

+ Beast Magic (major, hermetic).  
  The magus can harness a beasts essence to control it. 
  Mechanics to be invented.

## Minor mysteries

Puissant art is common for Herbam, Mentem, and Animàl.
House Diedne adopted a large number of non-Hermetic lineages,
and their different magic powers were integrated as mysteries.
This gives the house a vast range of available mysteries,
with different lineages prioritising different powers.

+ Puissant art is common for Herbam, Mentem, and Animàl.
+ Cyclic magic favouring Summer
+ Animal Ken

## Common Ordeals

Flaws hampering formulaic magic are very common,
athough some lineages have invented scripts that avoid them.

+ Rigid Magic
+ Poor Formulaic Magic
+ Unstructured Caster

## Initiations

The *wicker man* ritual is used in one or more of the major
mysteries.  This needs to be elaborated.

## Open Questions

Some of the older canon sources suggest that the Diedne had
powerful rituals, presumably very different from Mercurian
rituals.