Diving

Diving is this world’s form of “Magic”. It is the act of connecting to different planes of reality through the use of a Relic. Any Relic may be used, it is the fact that they are connected to the divine that allows them to be used for this purpose. Some Relics have particular connections to particular planes, allowing Divers using that Relic to more easily strengthen their connection with that plane.

The planes each rule over an aspect of reality, either physical or metaphysical. The church believes they are aspects of god given a physical form. The believe that these Planes are the source of what they govern.

A capable diver can complete a dive in a few seconds, connecting to the planes in sequence and pulling out the effect they desire. Novice divers or those undertaking large and complex actions may take longer.

You can use the following tool to plan your dive and calculate your chances of success: DIG Diving Calculator Long Touch/Click can be used to display additional info about a sphere.

Basic Diving mechanics
To be able to dive you need a Relic Fragment OR any other Relic.

Diving functions by moving through a 'sphere map'. Each sphere in the gray area controls a Substance while each sphere in the white and black control actions. In order to perform a magical action to effect the world, the Diver needs to “visit” both spheres. In order to do that, they must trace a path along the passages to reach each sphere. This path always begins in the center sphere: Akhmah.

Each movement through a passage requires a Nerve roll. Failure does not prevent passage, instead it applies a -1 to Nerve for the next 24 hours or thereabouts. The diver can also decide to “Strengthen” their connection to a sphere with extra rolls, increasing the power of the spell. This helps increase the attributes of the strengthened sphere, as well as allow greater range and precision.

At the end of all the rolls for the creation of the spell, there is a final Nerve check to make sure the diver’s mind came back intact, not fractured or infected. Failure can have numerous side effects, some minor, some catastrophic. The greater the failure though, the worse it will be. This is an instance in which the Fate die is used and can make the difference between shrugging the effects off and being fatally possessed.

In addition to these Nerve rolls, one or more stat rolls are required at the end, depending on what material sphere(s) were used. Note that you only need to roll for the stats of the material spheres you actively used. If you simply 'passed through' a certain material sphere on the way to another sphere, without using the aspect of that sphere in your spell, you don't need to roll for that sphere's stat. Failure of these other stat checks will again not stop the effect from materializing, but will alter it.

When you cast spells there three states you can do it in. Focused is when you are doing a spell in someplace safe and quiet, and you get an advantage on all the Nerve rolls. Normal is when you are doing spells someplace that isn’t actively dangerous but isn’t safe either. Rushed is when you are in active combat or in a dangerous situation; all rolls then are done at a disadvantage. Note that the final nerve roll and the final stat roll is not done with advantage or disadvantage, but they do benefit from any Dive skill bonus.

Diver Sacrificing
A Diver has the power to sacrifice things and themselves to recoup lost Nerve before that final check. Sacrificing items can be done, though generally these items must be of some worth and of some connection to the material or action spheres being accessed. Sacrificing themselves comes in two varieties; major and minor. Minor involves the permanent trade of one stat point (effectively deleveling it by 1) for the return of up to +3 on Nerve. The second, Major method involves the wholesale sacrifice of a body part. Depending on the part sacrificed, this can purchase an entire spell or at least significantly lessen the burden. Severed parts may be replaced but they often have unpredictable side effects due to their connection to other worlds. Note that the more a sacrifice hurts the diver, the more likely it is to work and be helpful. The more beneficial it is (such as sacrificing to get rid of an obstacle in the way), the less likely it will be accepted. It may even cause harm. Note that nerve recoup happens all at once at the end of the spell before dong the final nerve roll.

Sphere Projection
A diver can choose to, rather than just connecting up the spheres for an effect, project themselves into those spheres. This requires rolls to reach the sphere like in normal diving, though he wouldn't need to reinforce any of the spheres. Once there they will behave as though they are physically in that place. They can only go to one sphere at once, they can't hybridize spheres. The other spheres are other universes and divers can enter them, explore, interact with beings there, and even take items from them back to our world. All items and stats carry over, however death in those worlds will lead to brain death and possible possession. Other injuries do not carry over however. Items brought over retain their connection to the original sphere and thus may be prone to oddities and attracting oddities. A diver can take other people with him when projecting themselves into a sphere. You can still do dives while sphere projecting, in that case your dive travel path starts at the sphere you are currently in. Using the sphere you are currently in as an active part of your dive can have strange effects, so be careful. If your dive has side effects, there is a chance these will bleed over into the real world where your body is, it depends on the severity and what they are. Physical ones won't but mental ones can. So if you dive in a sphere and get possessed, then your body here gets possessed.

Akhmah
Akhmah is the mundane world. It looks, acts, and feels mundane. Visited by: Everyone

Balarim
Balaram is full of conveyors which are full of random created items, endlessly moving between an infinite building and a similarly infinite black void. Visited by: AsHul

Yengenze
Yengenze appears to be a massive library. Everything is scaled up dramatically. Visited by: AsHul

Telazch
unvisited

Udyne
Valleys of retained memory are filled with deadly monsters. Mountains cause people to gradually forget everything. The cyclopean horse headed men who are the only civilized race of Undyne. Live in the middle point between the mountains and valleys. Spend a lot of their time focusing to remember things about themselves and the world. (Their songs were probably a way to help them retain their memories.

Tzimzvot
The location seen so far is a forest of black, metallic trees that seem to attract lightning. Visited by: AsHul

Noth
The location seen so far is an airless, pitch black void. No sight, sound or other senses detect anything (visited by: AsHul). Noth is apparently hard to explain since its a realm of mathematics and physical constants. Apparently its rarely explored because it has has a bad habit of leading to places like the realm of the concept of heat and reducing its explorers to plasma. Or just generally not being exactly livable.

Konis
unvisited

Es
Es is an idyllic place ruled over by the arcane machinations of unseen forces. A endless archipelago, clustered islands in a great sea inhabited by a great many strange races. Enormous metal cables stretch down from overhead, securing the islands and sometimes attaching themselves to inhabitants to puppet them about. There is an unimaginably vast machine  for a sky and it stretches to the horizons, giving the impression that the entire world is like a mechanical diorama, all things in it controlled and maintained in some mock interpretation of reality.

Sige
Sige is a place of constant change, realm of a force known as "the Flux". Its a fluid dimension, filled with liquids of different densities and materials, all shifting like a lava lamp. There are islands of more solid material, but their shapes are always changing. The inhabitants are equally mutable gel like creatures who seem to share a consciousness and hate stagnant or unchanging things. They want to spread the flux and are known to act...deviously to do so. They seem to have great difficulty distinguishing one human from another and understanding the concept of individuality. Dangerous to go there for any long period of time as it will result in mutation.

Hel
Is a place of transmutation, everything looks the same, but what its made out of keeps changing. As per creatures that might possess someone, you think the giant Aquamarine Cats are the most likely. They're usually not hostile but they are alien and can do some dangerous things even without malice. They're also damn near indestructible, least on their world.

Nehn
A cavern filled with glowing stone seams. Gravity seems to be very Escher like, being able to walk in a spiral up a circular tunnel by only walking forward. Contained an upside down Ziggurat on the ceiling of a cavern, water flowing up it onto the ceiling. This water made the drinker feel lighter and able to jump higher.

Xi
Xi resembles, from a distance, a universe not unlike our own, but much older. The stars are few and glow a dim red; planets, are cold, dead places barely above absolute zero, and constructed seemingly out of bizarre amalgamations of junk, the refuse and failed summonings of infinite worlds gathered into plant sized masses. It is, under normal circumstances, extremely fatal to unprotected humans, in much the same way that throwing someone out into the hard vacuum of space would be. Interestingly, despite the lack of atmosphere, high ambient radiation, and extreme cold, things summoned through by normal means do not appear to suffer any sort of consequences from their passage. It may be that things which are summoned are protected on their route by some force, or that their passage through the dimension is short enough that it can't adversely affect them. Portals on the other hand, offer none of this protection and opening one is akin to kicking open the airlock while in space; there is a lot of suction on both ends and anything which exists Xi can move through quite easily, assuming the opening is large enough. As such, portals are significantly more dangerous and difficult to use: the portal will open straight into Xi, and the other end of the portal will open up a short distance away within Xi, and the user will have to get to it under their own power. Amongst the floating hulks of cosmic trash and long lost material, lurking in the darkness are strange creatures. These things swim through space, ancient and huge, some as large as galaxies, eating heat, matter, time and information. They were born of some odd congruence of unknown variables, self generating Boltzmann Brains which cling to their existance and remain, huge and terrible. They are called Astromorphs. These creatures are the apex predators, so massive that any interaction with them is like interacting with a single cell of a human. They feed on the cold reality of Xi like whales feed on krill, eating indiscriminately and without notice of the tiny beings and objects that occasionally flicker through their home. But they are not alone; all manner of smaller creatures and stellar parasites exist and roam the darkness, seeking out sources of food. These things rarely have what could be called a traditional physical form and more often resemble something like the Color out of Space or sentient, parasitic soundwaves, though some may have physical projections or aspects of their bodies. Almost anything alien and strange could come from Xi's infinite space.

Relic Visions
In addition to sphere projection, there is another way to visit dimensions other than our own.

Relics are objects which contain some measure of the divine. They are uncommon and generally are easily identifiable by their odd qualities. They are often mundane items with some measure of otherworldliness to them; for instance a fresco vase with moving images or a chalice which is always full of blood. These Relics are unique and interesting but not very useful on their own under most circumstances. Instead, they act as fuel for what the Tenebrous Church calls “Communion”, hallucinatory dreams in which a group of people may explore a communal out of body experience. These visions are similar to exploration of the spheres: the body of the dreamer remains behind but they may return with physical objects from that dream world and may be injured or die there.

These visions are where the true prize of Relics lie; each vision contains what is considered to be the “Core” the inherent power which maintains the artifact. This may be a weapon, an item, a material, knowledge, or just about anything else. Finding and returning with these objects will destroy the Artifact, but the exchange is usually more than worth it.

Communion involves the burning of the Relic, or at least engulfing it in flame. Some relics, the lesser ones, will be destroyed. Others will survive so long as their core is not removed. Regardless, the smoke they release will allow those that breathe it to experience the vision. In addition, certain other things may be burnt along with the relic. Called “Divine Parts” these are literally body parts, sometimes pulled from living beasts and sometimes found preserved in Tombs. These extras modify the vision in different ways and can strengthen or weaken the core, or apply different effects to it.

Human made shrines are usually where communion takes place, as they are specifically set up for it. Relic Visions and Diving are considered to be similar in nature though quite different in result. Relic visions are far smaller and weaker than the Planes accessed by Diving, thought to be fragments of the greater whole. One can still perform magic through diving while visiting another sphere. Note however that using that sphere for magic while inside it can have strange consequences.

Group Diving
Group diving allows a dive to be split amongst multiple divers, making the overall dive safer due to the lower number of rolls per person.

Diving example
Radio’s character has 13 nerve and +3 dive skill. His stats are 10 otherwise.

GM: Lets start with something where you have an advantage. Irony, the Ethral, comes up to you in the bore demanding  you make him a little boy homunculus. For research purposes.

Radio: First I demand something for a sacrifice. For instance some short shorts, from his previous experiments. That should have some connection to the spell and work as a sacrifice.

GM: He gives you a pair of oddly moist latex hotpants.

Radio: Ok, that should let me recoup some Nerve at the end. So I’m going to go Telazch for biology and Yengenze for the mind. I could go Ah to create the body from scratch but instead I’m going to create a body from Clay and then use Hel to transmute it to flesh. So path is Akhmah, Telazch, Yengenze, then Hel.

GM: Alright so 5 rolls for the basic spell. Are you gonna sink extra rolls into any of those spheres you’re using to strengthen them?

Radio: Well...Irony probably doesn’t want them very cognizant so no reason to reinforce Yengenze. Lets sink one extra into both Telazch and Hel.

GM: So seven total. Lets roll that out, 7d20, rolling less than 16 to succeed...You got 3 failures, but you have advantage so I’ll reroll those three failures. Alright, you still failed one roll so your nerve decreases from 13 to 12. Now lets do that final roll. Remember, it isn’t done at advantage. I’m not sure these shorts are good enough as a sacrifice, so I’ll roll fate to decide...looks like it will work. Oh no~ You rolled a 20. Which means you succeeded on the spell but you went a bit mad in the process.

Radio: Damn it. What about the other rolls?

GM: You used two materials, Yengenze and Telazch so we’re rolling Cunning and Endurance...Looks like you failed The endurance so this thing isn’t gonna be doing so great in terms of being alive.

Radio: So in the end I created a half dead, malformed idiot child and went partially insane in the process?

GM: Yep.