Triebemancy

Aka Pervs, Creeps

People are capricious and ugly creatures. We claim to be refined beings, holding our societies and morals as the pinnacles of our high-minded reason. Really, all we did was slap those things together because it made satisfying our base, atavistic needs safer and easier. The human consciousness is a tiny canoe atop a stormy sea, and while we can row as hard as we like, we are always at the mercy of the waves. Pioneers of the field of psychology knew this, and so do you.

No decision we make isn't tinged with our powerful, suppressed desires. The id runs the show, behind all the other needs and responsibilities we work so hard for. It is always just behind us, pushing forward, and that constant push, though sometimes gentle, does work on all that we do work on. Everything we do is ultimately a subtle expression of those crass and untamed needs. Many of the world's finest artists were delighted to realize this, and it is your creed.

These drives are often frightening, but they are the foundation on which all of our world is built. There is no part of us that is more natural, and more powerful. Many people would risk their reputations, give up their hard-earned livelihood, and even alienate their friends and family for the sake of satisfying these urges. The pornography industry happily acknowledges these needs, and provides for them. The internet, that place of anonymity, is rife with plenty of material to scratch whatever itch there may be. They are your bread and butter.

The paradox of Triebemancy is that it celebrates that our base needs made our civilized human society possible, but in doing so they reject the socializing and interpersonal relationships that are necessary to lead from one to the other. They refuse contact with polite society, but in doing so they also deny their beloved Freudian drives the purposes they serve.

Stats

Generate a minor charge: Spend $100 of your own money on pornographic material, subscriptions, and merchandise. You get a charge whenever the total amount of money you've spent increases by $100. For example, if you spend $25 a week on smut, you get a charge each month. If, during the first week of the month, you spend $50 on dirty movies, you get a charge after you pay your $25 bill on the second week, and the second week of every month thereafter instead of the last. Furthermore, you get an additional charge once you've spent your first $100 on a particular site subscription. Seeing as how "property" is a flexible term on the tubes, this means you'll likely pay multiple times for the same material. That's okay, though, as you're still supporting your id ideology by supporting a new carnal altar.

Generate a significant charge: Meet someone publicly affiliated with one of your patronized smut companies in person, and take home an "artifact" from the meeting, such as an autograph, commemorative merchandise, or something touched or owned by the other person. You may charge up from multiple meetings with the same person, but you need to collect an artifact for each charge, and each meeting must be at least six months apart. Taking home multiple artifacts from the same person from the same meeting does not grant any extra charges.

Generate a major charge: Acquire the concrete, physical evidence that a figure important to society has indulged in something that their community would consider shameful. This doesn't have to be sexual in nature, just something previously thought to be beneath the figure. Any of the women who were involved in the "Wienergate" scandal would've gotten charges, had they been Triebemancers. The same goes for Frank Willis, the security guard who first noticed evidence of wiretaps during Nixon's Watergate scandal.

Taboo: You must not allow anyone to openly acknowledge you as deserving admiration, prestige, or otherwise being an exemplary pro-social member of society. This doesn't mean that you wipe your charges every time someone tells you "thanks" or "you're welcome" (although it could, if this is spurred by an honorable or noteworthy action), nor do you have to openly antagonize everyone all the time. You just cannot stand out as a positive impact on your surroundings. Careful with that Noble passion.

Random Magick: Triebemancy is the magick of secrets, suppressed and frustrated desires, and the alienation that results from people hiding shameful things. It's excellent for snooping, obscuring, loosening or tightening inhibitions, and playing on people's consciences and "true" natures. It's got a variety of applications, but it isn't exemplary for any particular one of them, nor is it useful for affecting things physically.

Note Well: This influence over secrets has convinced many in the Underground that the Western (and possibly both) schools of Cryptomancy are all but finished.

Formula Spells

Minor

This is Tame (1 Minor): This can be cast in response to a stress check. The check is treat as though it is three ranks lower than usual. For two more charges, this can affect everyone who witnessed what caused the check as well.

Moe Moe (1 Minor): Most Creeps live up to their name, with all that implies about personal appeal. Likewise, they also tend to be withdrawn and visibly awkward in social situations. However, this spell gives a +20% shift to the caster's next social interaction roll, as their usual uselessness inexplicably makes them seem vulnerable and cutesy. A weird side-effect of this spell is that the caster tends to add random verbal tics to their usual diction. Desu.

Creeper (2 Minor): To cast this spell, you need something the target has touched in the last 24 hours. For the next 72 hours, whenever the target is not in the company of anyone they know personally, you will have a general sense of their location, and their direction in relation to you.

Instant Pariah (2 Minor): For the next five minutes, everyone mostly ignores you, doesn't remember your face, and will only really notice your presence if you do something significantly noticeable - merely suspicious action won't cut it, and as soon as you're out of sight, you get another chance to not be noticed even by the same people who just saw you pointing a gun. As an unfortunate side effect, anyone without a prior established attitude towards you will treat you with contempt while you are under this spell.

Mystic Voyeur (3 Minor): Similar to a spell once used by the Western Crypts - and presumably still used, if there's a single one left - this grants the user the skill of Aura Sight for an hour, at a level equal to their Magick skill.

Loose Lips (3 Minor): For the next hour, the target of this spell starts talking about things they otherwise know they shouldn't. Everything from racy limericks to personal sex-capades become okay to talk about in polite company. More important stuff, like company secrets or information that would be damaging to them can be revealed after getting the right amount of privacy. You may not be able to control what they feel like saying magickally, but with some clever chatting, you might just be able to get them to tell you something useful.

Why Hello There (4 Minor): When you cast this spell, choose a target by full name and state something that you know will tempt or arouse their baser desires. The target will subconsciously seek out a way to indulge that temptation. They won't drop everything they're doing, but won't exactly be operating at optimal efficiency. Once a way to indulge presents itself, the target will slake that desire every chance they get until the next time they sleep. A victim of this spell can break out any time they become aware of their behavior with a rank-4 self check.

Significant

Ecchi-splosion (1 Significant): The target of this spell suddenly suffers from a profuse and forceful nosebleed. This may only distract them at first, but if the flow isn't stoppered properly within 30 seconds (or three combat rounds) the victim has, at that point lost enough blood to go into shock. If this happens, or it is stopped and stays stopped for 30 seconds (or three combat rounds) in a row, the nosebleed stops as mysteriously as it began.

Edgeplay (1 Significant): It's a fine line between fear and fetishism. This spell blurs that line until the two become indistinguishable. For a number of hours equal to the tens place on the magick roll, the target of this spell sees things a bit, shall we say, differently. What the target previously was repelled by, due to fear, loathing, or revulsion, suddenly takes on an element of magnetism and excitement. This won't make them spontaneously go on a lust-driven killing spree, but it will it make it far easier for the target to do something they previously thought they wouldn't, even if they had no conscious interest in it. Left alone, the target won't do anything too out of the ordinary, they may experiment with something new if the opportunity presents itself, and doesn't conflict with the target's normal sensibilities (safe, sane, consensual!). If you attempt to interact to the target to persuade them into something they would otherwise find objectionable or inane, you get a +30% shift to all social checks directly pertaining to this persuasion. Once the spell ends, the target will have to face the appropriate stress checks for what they did while under the effects of this spell.

If someone under the effects of this spell becomes engaged in combat, some new effects become apparent. Believe it or not, most people are averse to being physically assaulted. This spell affects that. Most people are also averse to physically harming someone else. This spell affects that, too. In combat, anyone attacking the target gets a +20% shift to their attack roll, and the target gets a -20% shift to any defensive maneuver (dodge, run, block, whatever) made, as they suddenly want to experience the thrill of bloody combat. It's a double-edged sword, however, as the target gets to flip-flop all attack rolls, and gets and +30% shift to initiative if they begin combat under the effects of the spell. Now's probably a good time to mention that you can cast this on allies as well as enemies, but not on yourself.

Pleasure Principle (2 Significant): The target of this spell drops what they are doing, and seeks out the nearest easy source of pleasure. They'll spend the next twelve hours indulging in whatever they've settled on, doing nothing else and giving no regard to other obligations. "Pleasure" in this case can refer to something found at a brothel, or something like curling up with a good book. It depends on the target. If the target should be doing something they feel is too important to slack on, they may break the spell with a rank-5 self check. This spell can affect another person for additional minor charge, to a maximum of ten people. This spell can also be customized like Blasts (UA2, pp. 115). This cannot be cast while engaged in something stressful like combat.

Privacy Piracy (2 Significant): To cast this spell, you must know one embarrassing or shameful secret of the target. Suddenly, everyone the target is acquainted with will just somehow know about their secret. Depending on the secret in question, most people probably won't act any differently. Close friends and family members, on the other hand, may be compelled to snoop, and will likely react badly when they find out the truth about what the target has been keeping from them.

Sniff the Darkness (3 Significant): This spell is similar to the Cryptomancy spell Taste the Darkness, except instead of magickally getting an inkling about the target's secret, you learn about the thing the target thinks is most dangerous to keeping it, and who they least want to find out. Specifically, you get a vague sense of the thing's nature and location, as well as the impression the target has of the person who they try to hide it from. For a cheating husband, you may get "Perfumed, lace token - three blocks east, wife's car" for the object, and "Bland, noisy harridan" for the person. This spell alone does not reveal anything in particular the target may be hiding, or why they want it hidden, nor does it tell you what the object is or the person's relation to the target. It just gives you some nice leads for further snooping.

Sublimation (4 Significant): To cast this spell, you must know for certain something that the target has a great desire for, but feels ashamed of. You also need a token that the target believes represents this shameful need, as well as a personal belonging of the target. That secret urge vanishes, and is replaced by an equally strong desire to achieve one task of your choosing. The target will continue to feel pulled to do whatever you chose for them until it is accomplished, at which time they'll have their old shame back. The thing about this spell is that you just need to know the target's name and have the task in mind when you cast. The target will instinctively know exactly what you want them to do, and will face a rank-5 self check as their old need suddenly seems less urgent. The token required for this spell doesn't have to be something the target necessarily owns, but it must have symbolism relating to it that the target would recognize. For a closeted homosexual, for example, a dirty magazine with the appropriate content would suffice. For a recovering alchoholic, a bottle of Jack Daniel's would work.

Ressentiment (4 Significant): To cast this spell, you must know that the target, either an individual or a group, is in search of something that is important to them or their goals. You don't need to know what the thing itself is, just that the target is looking for it. For a number of days equal to the sum of the dice, the targets will find themselves distracted or redirected by false leads whenever they make a conscious attempt to find whatever they're looking for. If you taboo, or if the target somehow stumbles upon the sought-after thing by chance, the spell will end.

Major effects

Cause a wide range of people to dream about the statosphere, and remember it clearly. Implant a subconscious desire into every human on the planet. Make yourself able to learn about other people's subconscious needs with a glance. Cause a crowd of people to give in, on the spot, to their shameful desires.