Witchcraft: Fate's Design allows the user to draw upon the powers of a Tarot card deck, with each card representing a specific ability or effect. The user can draw cards to gain unique powers based on the archetypes of the Major and Minor Arcana. Additionally, as a form of Witchcraft technique, user is able to cast spells and rituals stored in their family's grimoire, if it has one.
Overall Mechanism:
The user’s ability to manipulate fate and reality with Fate's Design relies heavily on their strategic thinking, experience with the Tarot cards, and their understanding of their opponents. The combination of drawn cards allows for versatile combat strategies, but the limitations regarding energy use and cooldown periods ensure that the user must think carefully about their actions and the timing of their draws.
Execution and Activation:
The user must conjure and shuffle the Tarot card deck, then draw a specified number of cards. The activation involves a brief incantation that channels cursed energy into the drawn card(s). The user can draw one Major Arcana card and two Minor Arcana card simultaneously, or they can choose to draw three Minor Arcana cards instead. The user can only draw once per hour.
Activation Phrase: To conjure the deck, the user must chant the phrase: "Let the cards reveal their fate." This incantation channels their cursed energy in reversal to create a mystic deck of Arcana Cards.
To activate each card, user has to speak its name.
Limitations:
- Energy Consumption: Drawing cards consumes a significant amount of cursed energy, which can leave the user fatigued if done recklessly. Each Major Arcana card costs more energy than a Minor Arcana card.
- Cooldown Period: After drawing cards, the user must wait an hour before drawing again, preventing rapid succession of card draws in battle.
- Card Limitations: The user can only hold the effects of two cards at a time (one Major and one Minor or two Minor) and can only activate one card's ability at a time. If a new card is drawn, the previously drawn card's effect ends immediately.
- Unpredictability: Some cards may have unpredictable effects, especially the Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man, which introduce an element of risk when drawn.
- Incompatibility: Certain card effects may clash with one another or may not synergize well, resulting in diminished effectiveness when combined.
Card Powers:
Major Arana Powers
0. The Fool - Leap of Faith: Grants the ability to take risks without consequences for an unknown short time. The user can make reckless moves with confidence, avoiding danger and surprise attacks.
1. The Magician - Manifestation: Enhances the user's cursed energy manipulation, allowing them to create temporary constructs or barriers made of cursed energy, amplifying their offensive and defensive capabilities.
2. The High Priestess - Intuitive Insight: Enhances the user’s intuition and perception, enabling them to foresee imminent threats or hidden truths. The user gains heightened awareness of their surroundings and opponents.
3. The Empress - Nurturing Presence: The user can heal themselves or allies within a certain range, restoring their cursed energy or physical health. This power emphasizes growth and revitalization.
4. The Emperor - Dominion Over Chaos: The user can create an imposing aura that instills fear or hesitation in enemies within a certain radius. This power can disrupt their focus, lowering their attack accuracy temporarily.
5. The Hierophant - Wisdom: Provides wisdom and guidance. Gives full knowledge about the chosen technique or cursed object. Additionally, it nullifies the target's Revealing One's Hand binding vow on that technique/object.
6. The Lovers - Bond of Unity: Creates a bond between the user and one of their allies that shares their blessings and ailments, and strengthens their abilities when working together. In conclusion: allows them to share pain and power.
7. The Chariot - Determination: Increases the user's speed, agility and attack evasion. The energy of this card allows the user to perform rapid movements and counterstrikes, even move through the solid matter.
8. Strength - Inner Power: Grants the user immense physical strength and resilience. The user can overpower opponents and withstand significant damage during combat.
9. The Hermit - Solitude: Grants the user the ability to become invisible for a short time and enhances their stealth, allowing them to evade detection and ambush opponents.
10. Wheel of Fortune - Luck's Favour: This card can alter the course of events, allowing the user to create a random miracle. It can turn the tide of battle, evade imminent defeat or even resurrect an ally.
11. Justice - Equilibrium: Allows the user to impose a temporary balance in combat, reflecting damage back to the attacker or equalizing the odds against a stronger opponent.
12. The Hanged Man - Sacrifice: The user can sacrifice a portion of their cursed energy to immobilize an opponent, placing them in a vulnerable state for a short duration.
13. Death - Transformation: Symbolizes endings and new beginnings. It allows the user to temporarily disable an opponent's cursed technique, effectively "killing" its effect for a brief period.
14. Temperance - Harmony: Creates a temporary state of calmness that slows down time, giving the user a chance to plan their next moves.
15. The Devil - Temptation: Envelops an opponent in a dark aura, causing them to act against their own best interests or hesitate to attack.
16. The Tower - Cataclysm: Unleashes chaos; the user can create devastating explosions or catastrophic events in a targeted area but with a risk of collateral damage.
17. The Star - Hope: Instills a sense of focus and rejuvenation in allies, temporarily boosting their morale and enhancing their abilities, while also providing minor healing.
18. The Moon - Illusionary Veil: Manipulates illusions and shadows, allowing the user to confuse and mislead opponents, creating doppelgängers.
19. The Sun - Radiant Empowerment: Fills the user with radiant energy, enhancing their offensive capabilities and senses, disperses darkness; allows the user to cross any Curtains and covers them in aura of anti-domain technique.
20. Judgment - Reckoning: Allows the user to deliver a powerful judgment on an opponent, culminating in a devastating attack that weighs heavily on their past actions in battle.
21. The World - Completion: A Domain Expansion envelops the user in a vast, ethereal space resembling a mystical tarot card layout. Each card in the layout represents a moment in time or a decision to be made, creating a labyrinth of fate where the user can manipulate outcomes. Within this domain, the user gains the ability to draw multiple cards simultaneously, allowing for a combination of effects.
Minor Arcana Powers
Cups (Emotions, Relationships, Intuition)
Ace of Cups: Grants a surge of emotional energy that can heal allies or create temporary barriers of love and support.
Two of Cups: Allows the user to forge a temporary bond with an ally, enhancing their abilities and allowing for shared power.
Three of Cups: Creates an aura of celebration, boosting morale and temporarily increasing the abilities of all allies in the vicinity.
Four of Cups: Induces apathy or emotional withdrawal in an opponent, reducing their reaction speed and effectiveness in battle.
Five of Cups: Causes a wave of regret in an opponent, weakening their resolve and temporarily lowering their defense.
Six of Cups: Summons memories from the past, allowing the user to see their opponent's past experiences and predict their actions.
Seven of Cups: Creates illusions based on the desires and fears of the opponent, causing confusion and misdirection.
Eight of Cups: Instills a sense of abandonment in an enemy, causing them to hesitate or withdraw from combat.
Nine of Cups: Grants a moment of fulfillment or satisfaction, temporarily boosting the user's abilities and confidence.
Ten of Cups: Creates an overwhelming wave of joy that can heal and restore allies while dispelling negative effects on the battlefield.
Page of Cups: Summons a spirit ally that provides emotional support and minor healing to the user and their allies.
Knight of Cups: Enhances the user's mobility and agility, allowing for quick and fluid movements in combat.
Queen of Cups: Provides deep intuition and insight, allowing the user to sense hidden emotions and intentions in opponents.
King of Cups: Grants mastery over emotions, allowing the user to control the emotional states of others, either calming or inciting them.
Pentacles (Material, Wealth, Practicality)
Ace of Pentacles: Grants a boon of prosperity, temporarily increasing the user's cursed energy reserves.
Two of Pentacles: Allows the user to balance two tasks simultaneously, enhancing their multitasking abilities in battle.
Three of Pentacles: Summons an ethereal construct that aids the user in battle, acting as a shield or weapon.
Four of Pentacles: Creates a protective barrier around the user that absorbs damage and reflects it back to the attacker.
Five of Pentacles: Inflicts a sense of loss and despair on opponents, weakening their attacks and resolve.
Six of Pentacles: Distributes energy among allies, allowing them to share power and resources effectively.
Seven of Pentacles: Grants foresight into the consequences of actions, allowing the user to predict the outcome of their decisions.
Eight of Pentacles: Enhances the user’s skill proficiency, allowing them to execute techniques with increased efficiency.
Nine of Pentacles: Bestows a sense of luxury and comfort, temporarily boosting the user's abilities and confidence.
Ten of Pentacles: Creates a legacy of power, enhancing the abilities of allies and providing long-lasting buffs.
Page of Pentacles: Summons a small spirit of wealth that provides minor boosts to the user's cursed energy.
Knight of Pentacles: Enhances the user's physical strength and endurance, allowing for powerful attacks and resistance.
Queen of Pentacles: Provides nurturing energy, healing allies and enhancing their defenses in battle.
King of Pentacles: Grants mastery over material resources, allowing the user to manipulate their surroundings and create advantageous conditions.
Swords (Thought, Intellect, Conflict)
Ace of Swords: Grants clarity of thought, allowing the user to see through deception and obstacles.
Two of Swords: Creates a stalemate in battle, forcing opponents to hesitate and consider their next move carefully.
Three of Swords: Inflicts emotional pain on opponents, causing confusion and disarray.
Four of Swords: Grants a moment of rest, allowing the user to recover energy and strategize for the next phase of battle.
Five of Swords: Causes conflict and strife among opponents, turning allies against each other temporarily.
Six of Swords: Provides a means of escape, allowing the user and allies to evade danger and reposition themselves strategically.
Seven of Swords: Enhances stealth and deception, allowing the user to move undetected and execute surprise attacks.
Eight of Swords: Induces a feeling of entrapment in opponents, binding them with mental constraints and limiting movement.
Nine of Swords: Inflicts nightmares or psychological terror on opponents, causing them to hesitate and second-guess their actions.
Ten of Swords: Delivers a devastating blow to an opponent's psyche, causing overwhelming defeat and despair.
Page of Swords: Summons a spirit of intellect that provides strategic insights and boosts the user's analytical abilities.
Knight of Swords: Enhances speed and agility, allowing the user to execute quick, decisive attacks.
Queen of Swords: Provides clarity and assertiveness, allowing the user to cut through confusion and decisively confront opponents.
King of Swords: Grants mastery over logic and strategy, allowing the user to manipulate the battlefield and opponents' actions.
Wands (Creativity, Action, Inspiration)
Ace of Wands: Grants a surge of creative energy, allowing the user to manifest powerful new techniques.
Two of Wands: Allows the user to make strategic decisions that affect the battlefield, enhancing their tactical options.
Three of Wands: Prepares the user for incoming challenges, increasing their readiness and reaction time.
Four of Wands: Creates a moment of celebration that boosts morale, increasing the abilities of allies nearby.
Five of Wands: Incites friendly competition among allies, temporarily boosting their abilities through rivalry.
Six of Wands: Provides a sense of victory, granting temporary invulnerability and enhancing attack power.
Seven of Wands: Enhances defensive capabilities, allowing the user to repel attacks and maintain control.
Eight of Wands: Increases the speed of all actions taken by the user, allowing for rapid execution of techniques.
Nine of Wands: Instills resilience, allowing the user to endure attacks that would normally incapacitate them.
Ten of Wands: Inflicts burdens on opponents, weighing them down and reducing their speed and effectiveness.
Page of Wands: Summons a spirit of inspiration that boosts creativity and allows for innovative techniques.
Knight of Wands: Enhances the user's charisma and charm, making their techniques more persuasive and impactful.
Queen of Wands: Provides nurturing energy, inspiring allies and boosting their confidence and abilities.
King of Wands: Grants mastery over creativity and action, allowing the user to lead and inspire others while executing powerful techniques.
Domain Expansion: "The World"
•Description: The World is an expansive domain infused with the user's Tarot card powers, creating a mystical layout resembling a Tarot card spread. Within this domain, the user can manipulate fate and outcomes by drawing multiple cards simultaneously, allowing them to combine effects in creative and strategic ways. The environment is ethereal and surreal, with the cards floating around the user, each pulsating with energy.
Visual Effect: The domain appears as a vast, starry sky with a large circular layout of Tarot cards spread out on the ground. Each card radiates a unique glow corresponding to its archetype, and the atmosphere is filled with swirling energies representing the intertwining fates of the user and their opponents. A sense of awe and dread permeates the area, emphasizing the power of fate at play.
Enhancements:
- Increased Draw Capacity: Within this domain, the user can draw up to three Major Arcana and four Minor Arcana cards at once, exponentially increasing their versatility and ability to adapt to various situations. This allows for powerful combinations and strategic layering of effects.
- Guaranteed Activation: Any card drawn within the domain guarantees activation, meaning the user doesn't have to worry about the cards failing or being interrupted. The effects are amplified, providing stronger outcomes than when drawn outside the domain.
Duration and Limitations:
- Duration: The domain lasts for one minute, during which the user can draw and combine cards freely. After the duration ends, the user must wait an hour before activating it again, as the energy required to maintain such a powerful domain is immense.
- Card Limitations: While the user can draw multiple cards, they can only activate one card effect at a time, just like outside the domain. However, the synergy of the drawn cards remains a critical aspect of tactical planning during the domain’s duration.
- Access: Domain can be activated only by drawing "The World" Card.
Risks of Fate's Design
- Unpredictable Outcomes: Certain cards, especially those from the Major Arcana like the Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man, can lead to unpredictable results. The Wheel of Fortune may cause a random miracle that could backfire, while the Hanged Man may immobilize the user instead of the opponent if mismanaged. This unpredictability can lead to unforeseen consequences during critical moments in battle.
- Cursed Energy Drain: Drawing cards consumes vast amounts of cursed energy. If the user overextends and draws too many cards in a short period or relies heavily on their abilities, they may find themselves drained and vulnerable. This can lead to exhaustion, leaving them unable to defend themselves effectively or execute other techniques.
- Cooldown and Timing: The one-hour cooldown period after a draw can leave the user at a disadvantage if they are unable to draw new cards when needed. If their enemy capitalizes on this window, the user may find themselves unable to adapt to changing circumstances and may be forced to fight without the advantages provided by the drawn cards.
- Card Conflicts: Some card effects may not work well together or may even negate each other. For example, drawing a card that enhances speed may conflict with a card that causes an opponent to hesitate, leading to confusion in execution. Mismanaging the synergy between cards can result in lost opportunities or wasted energy.
- Psychological Burden: The thematic nature of Fate's Design can create a mental burden on the user. Constantly manipulating fate can lead to paranoia or anxiety about the consequences of their actions. This mental strain can distract the user during combat, making them vulnerable to attacks or mistakes.
- Emotional Vulnerability: Certain Minor Arcana cards, particularly from the Cups suit, can evoke strong emotions in both the user and their opponents. This can lead to emotional manipulation, but it can also backfire, making the user susceptible to their own emotional turmoil or that of their allies.
- Resistance and Countermeasures: Opponents who are aware of the user's technique may develop strategies to counteract it. For instance, they could utilize techniques that disrupt the user's ability to draw cards. This can significantly weaken the user's effectiveness during battle.
- Overconfidence in Fate Manipulation: The allure of manipulating fate may lead the user to become overconfident in their abilities. This overconfidence can result in reckless decisions, such as drawing cards in situations where the risk outweighs the potential reward, leading to dire consequences.