Through years of study and practice, some people have learned to harness the powers of the universe that are outside of normal human perception.
The most secretive and devoted wizards are always thin to the point of being almost skeleton-like by the end of their life. The primary reason is that the magic they practice sucks huge amount of energy out of chem. Thus, no matter how much they ear and drink, their bodies are being constantly consumed by the magic. Furthermore, the wizard’s pupil and iris of the eye turns completely black. Many wizards use cosmetic contact lenses to cover this fact.
Wizards and even their journeymen never go any place without their spell books, be it in a written and bound format or on an electronic POA device. The wizards have found however that PDAs or other electronic devices containing spells crash after a period as short as a month. So all wizards maintain a library of books to back up any electronic devices.
Wizards are a secretive bunch, having their own society outside of the normal mainstream culture. They are still very rooted in the guild structure. One wizard, the mentor, leads a nucleus of up to three journeyman wizards and up to nine apprentices. Each mentor is knows the two other mentor-level wizards that make up her cell, as well as the syndic of the larger cluster of cells. Each syndic controls seven cells. In addition, the syndic knows about two other syndics that form his branch and the grand master of the tree (which is composed of an unknown number of branches).
Wizards live a celibate lifestyle, never marrying or having outside relationships that would distract from their studies. This is one of the major reasons that most apprentices leave the brotherhood. All apprentices, upon entering the brotherhood for training have a spell cast upon them: Should they break the vow of secrecy they will die a horrible death. This keeps even the dropouts and chose rejected for advancement from speaking openly about their experiences and knowledge.
Apprentices have no usable magical ability but they have the innate ability to feel the magic’s power. This draws them to the society and keeps them going through the long years of training. While they are learning the rudimentary basics, they are mostly used to fulfill the wizard’s needs. Journeymen have the ability to harness some magic; they work on putting together and learning their spellbooks. According to guild rules, they are not allowed to use this magical power unless they are in the presence of their mentor wizard. A breach of etiquette about the use of magic can have the student expelled from the society. While apprentices and journeymen only know their specific mentor, the society feels the revealing of its presence to be a deadly affair.
Typical Modern Wizard
Reflexes 2D: melee combat 2D+2, sneak 3D
Coordination 2D+1: sleight of hand 4D
Physique 2D: lifting 2D+2
Knowledge 3D: business 3D+1, medicine 4D, scholar: occult 4D+2, tech 3D+1
Perception 3D: know-how 3D+2, investigation 5D , search 4D
Presence 3D: persuasion 3D, willpower 4D+2
Magic 2D+2: alteration 3D, apportation 3D, conjuration 3D, divination 3D
Strength Damage: 2D
Move: 10
Fate Points: 0
Character Points: 3
Body Points: 16
Wound levels: 3
Disadvantages: Advantage Flaw (R3), must cat 100 calories’ worth of food per 10 points of spell’s effect value within 1 hour after casting the spell or suffer -1 to damage resistance total, increasing by 1 per hour that goes without this food; Devotion (R1), to celibacy; Employed (R1), member of guild; Price (R1), speaking about the guild results in a painful death
Advantages: Equipment (R1), spellbook
Special Abilities: none
Equipment: spellbook (paper or electronic); spell components in a fashionable bag