Each character begins with 100 points of Balance. These points may be divided between the characters three forces as the player wishes, or may be spent on items/servants (as per conjuration). The character then buys skills, he has a number of points to spend on the skills of each force equal to the value of the force. Final Balance equals the sum of all three forces.

Three Forces

• Entropy governs Combat and Thievery. Skills: Weapon, Steal, Stealth, etc...
• Genesis governs Creativity and Charisma. Skills: Artistry, Expression, Performance, etc...
• Stasis governs Strength and Stamina. Skills: Survival, Dodge, Parry, etc...

Three forms of Magic

Each magic costs 20 skill points, characters may know up to 2 forms.

• Sorcery generates an attack worth 10 points for every point of Entropy spent
• Conjuration creates an item/creature with 3 points of Balance for every point of Genesis spent
• Necromancy creates Undead with a cost of 1 point of Stasis per point of creature Balance, or allows conversations with the dead at a cost of 1 question per point of Stasis spent.
• Special Skills; Channel Entropy, Genesis, or Stasis
  • These skills function the same. The magician contests the force plus channel versus the targets force plus channel. The victor may syphon a number of points from the loser equal to the difference in totals. These points may not be saved, and must immediately be spent on magic.

Everything has all three forces. Whenever someone tries to do something there is a contest of forces. Each side adds its force to any relavant skill, the person with the higher total is the victor.

Combat

In combat the attacker contests his Entropy + Weapon Skill (or the total value of a sorcerous attack) against the defenders Stasis + Dodge or Parry. The defender may counter-attack the attacker by contesting his Entropy + Weapon Skill against the attacker's Stasis + Defensive Skill.

The character who succeeds by the most wins, leaving his opponent in whatever state he desires. If the loser of the battle also succeeded in his attack, however, then the victor is also injured in the exchange. The amount by which the loser succeeded his attack contest is the amount of damage inflicted. The victor must deduct this many points from his forces, temporarily. The loser may choose to inflict a lesser amount of damage if he so desires.

Multiple people may combine their Forces, Skills, and Spells to gang up on foes or to better defend themselves. Note that the group succeeds or fails (or dies) as a whole. If their oponent defeats them, then he defeats them all.

Healing

Lost force points (whether spent for Magic or lost to injury) return at the following rates:

• 1/ hour minimum
• 1/ 30 minutes of rest
• 1/ 20 minutes of sleep
• +1 per interval if in a fount, this applies only to the force attuned to the fount, the others regenerate as normal.

Dyspedi is a Dyson Sphere, or at least it seems to be. It is a sphere with a radius of 1 AU. A sun, Pul, lies in the center of the vast sphere. Pul beats like a heart, rhymically expanding and contracting on a daily basis. As it contracts the light grows brighter and more yellow tinged, as it expands the light becomes dimmer and heads towards the red end of the spectrum. The length of one full beat is roughly equal to a terrestrial day.

Pul is orbited by countless small moons and asteroids, and also by Everbright, a small blue star no brighter than a terrestrial full moon. Everbright completes an orbit of Pul every 28 days.

The ground continues to unknown depths and the gravity is only slightly less than 1 G. No society within the sphere is yet advanced enough to have discovered the extents of the atmosphere, if indeed it ever ends.

The Oceans occupy roughly 2/3rds of the more than 10^17 square miles of interior and divide the countless continents from each other, sometimes by gulfs bigger than worlds. The mineral wealth of the world is roughly equal to that of terrestrial Earth.

Dyspedi is a primitive land, and most of its peoples still live in tribal societies. The societies largely believe the world to be flat, as the curve of the land is far too gentle for the naked eye to detect, and atmospheric interference usually blocks both the upward curving horizon and the skyward view of the rest of the sphere.