Sidhe and Elder Magic Effect Variation
In my vision of the Magic of the Perilous Lands, Chaos gets its effects by breaking or going beyond the natural laws, while Law gets its effects by rigidly enforcing those same laws, taking them to the extremes. Balance operates by manimulating the meta-laws behind the natural laws themselves.
This leaves the other two major spell systems -- Sidhe and Elder. In both cases the Caster is dealing not with laws of nature, but with spirits and forces of nature personified. With the Sidhe this manipulation is of the spirits of living things and living forces, and the Sidhe Magician expends mana to bribe, pay or otherwise convince the spirits to perform his whims. For the Kotothi, this mana is spent to threaten, torture or otherwise force the spirits to do their bidding. Elder magics deal with elemental forces, and like with the Sidhe, the mana spent is used to bribe or otherwise convince the spirits to do what you want.
To reflect the uncertainty of dealing with the spirits, roll 1d6 whenever a Sidhe or Elder spell is cast:
| Roll | Sidhe | Elder |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | EL-2 | EL-1 |
| 2 | EL-1 | no effect |
| 3 | no effect | no effect |
| 4 | no effect | no effect |
| 5 | EL+1 | no effect |
| 6 | EL+2 | EL+1 |
Shamans use the Elder table. The EL modification is used to determine the spell's actual effects -- the Caster's mana expenditure is not changed (in essence, some days the spirits just want to have fun and give you a bargain, somedays they are just grumpy).