Wind Study

_A Hermetic tradition focused on perception, movement, and the shaping of air itself.

“You don’t find the wind. The wind finds you—if you’re quiet enough, small enough, and smart enough to let it pass through.”
—Excerpt from _A ancient art of Wind-Calling Translated from Latin original scroll in Sanskrit.

It came west through whispers and smuggled scrolls, carried on caravans and merchant ships, in the breath of dying mystics and the pockets of deserters. Its origins are older than the Empire and far beyond its reach: shaped in the quiet monasteries of the east, refined by desert trackers and temple acrobats, and eventually stolen, of course stolen by the desperate and the cunning._

Its one of the easier arts to find partial scrolls of instruction, a full set is some what rarer. The Covenant of Seven or Ten Sighs is the original and some copies still arrive from the east but latter translations such as Codex Aeonis and Maqamat al-Rih مقامات الريح : Stations of the Wind” teach the same principles. Presently there is no known functional English Translation.

1. Whisperwind

• Difficulty: 1
• Q Cost: 1
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Blow across a spiral-carved reed and mouth the message silently.
• Effect: Sends a 12-word whisper to any target within 20 yards. Only they hear it.
• Unique Angle: Non-combat communication. Great for espionage or rituals.

2. Dustveil

• Difficulty: 2
• Q Cost: 2
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range : 20 yards
• Ritual: Clap hands while releasing a pinch of dust or ash.
• Effect: Creates a 3 yard cloud of swirling dust. Blocks line of sight and imposes a two black dice penalty to ranged attacks or perception within. Scatters papers, clears dusty foot prints and scares most animals.
• Unique Angle: Concealment, disruption, not raw force.

3. Soundstealer

• Difficulty: 2
• Q Cost: 2
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range : 20 yards
• Ritual: Wrap a black ribbon around your throat and speak a binding phrase.
• Effect: Silences an area of 1 yard or a person or object for 1 minute. No sound passes in or out.
• Unique Angle: Can disable enemy casters, stealth ambushes, dampens alarms.

4. Featherstep

• Difficulty: 3
• Q Cost: 3
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Tie a white feather to your bootlaces and take three deliberate steps.
• Effect: For 1 minute, your movement is silent, leaves no tracks, and ignores difficult terrain (loose gravel, shallow water).
• Unique Angle: Stealth-enhancing utility spell for infiltration or escapes.

5. Galegrasp

• Difficulty: 3
• Q Cost: 3
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Extend your hand and spiral your fingers inward, intoning a name of air.
• Effect: Snatches a small object (~under 5 lbs) from up to 10 yards away and pulls it to your hand. Can be used to disarm or retrieve, is counted as having a Strength positive modifier of gross success's.
• Unique Angle: Telekinetic flair utility.

6. Driftstep

• Difficulty: 3
• Quintessence: 3
• Casting Time: 2 actions
• Ritual: Walk in a clockwise circle, spinning a hanging charm, then leap while exhaling sharply.
• Effect: You or a willing target may fall safely from any height for 15 yards per gross success.
• Notes: Useful for rooftop escapes and avoiding fall damage..

7. Windbind

• Difficulty: 4
• Q Cost: 4
• Casting Time: 2 actions
• Ritual: Create a loop of twine in the air, chant an arresting breath-prayer, and cinch the loop.
• Effect: Target within 10 yards is entangled in invisible wind tendrils. Immobilized for 1 action per net success. Strength test resists if overcoming gross successes.
• Unique Angle: Pure battlefield control, no damage, just lockdown.

8. Windwalk

• Difficulty: 4
• Quintessence: 4
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Ritual: Bind a white cloth around your waist, raise arms to the sky, and chant while turning to the wind’s direction.
• Effect: Move over water, air, or soft ground as if walking normally. Grants +2 to Base Speed and Athletics for duration.
• Notes: Leaves faint swirling air patterns underfoot.

9. Thunderclap Hex

• Difficulty: 5
• Q Cost: 6
• Casting Time: 2 actions
• Ritual: Smash an iron rod on stone and shout the name of a forgotten wind.
• Effect: A deafening airburst. 5-30 yard radius(casters choice). All in area must make Fortitude tests vs net successes or be Deafened for one minute.
• Note: Use carefully in crowded environments

10. Mantle of the Gale

• Difficulty: 5
• Q Cost: 6
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Ritual: Fasten sky-blue silk to your arms, then walk in a circle while reciting the Litany of Movement.
• Effect: For 20 minutes:
  • You gain flight (20 ft per round)
  • +4 Armour against all ranged attacks not halved by firearms.
  • May Dash as a free action once per round
• Unique Angle: Mobility, evasion, aerial superiority.