The Speech and The Knowledge Wizards speak a "universal" language related to celestial, but even more basic: they can talk to _anything_, although rocks and air are only rarely capable of sparkling repartee. A Wizard using the Speech will percieve a conversation as though it were with a fellow sentient, but must beware of false perceptions of accuracy which he or she may give to something that cannot truly supply it. Note that the Speech is _not_ a secret language: anything that hears it can understand it just fine, although eavesdropping on a Wizard creating a claudication will seem so much gibberish to any but another Wizard. Wizards use Songs, rather than Sorcerous Rituals, but they use them in ways which Celestials (and others) perceive as very odd. Wizards call songs "Claudications" and speak them more than Singing them. This allows a Wizard to spend extra time explaining his reasons and requirements for using the Song to the Symphony more carefully. Each extra increment of time over the minimum necessary to speak the claudication spent in this manner will reduce the disturbance created by one. A Wizard may use the Speech to use a claudication mimicing the more active part of an Ofanite's resonance. If she has the permission of the possessee, she may use a claudication mimicing the Kyriotate resonance, but any damage inflicted upon the possessee and unhealed at the end of the possession will be inflicted at doubled strength upon the Wizard. If the deal is agreed to in full beforehand a Wizard may invoke a Geas with The Speech, but this requires no claudication. A Wizard on Errantry who has determined that a particular Celestial has a particular role to play in the resolution of said Errantry may use The Speech to Geas the Celestial in question into performing it at a level of Geas equivalent to the Errantry itself. The CD of the roll acts as a penalty to the Will roll to resist the Geas. Claudications mimicing a resonance must be prepared beforehand, like any other. They require no Mana to use, and cause no disturbance. A Wizard uses his skill in The Knowledge to Prepare claudications. This takes from around ten or so minutes at no penalty for common claudications to days or years at whatever the GM thinks appropriate for the more Secret sort. The check digit of this roll is the maximum level at which the Wizard may use the claudication in question later. The Wizard may keep trying till she gets it right, of course, but beginning a new preparation wipes the old one clean .... Every Wizard has his or her own way of accessing the Knowledge; from a magic book, to Runecasting, to voices in his head, but the method may not be stolen or used by any other, and is very hard to block by any means, so the differences are largely cosmetic. The Knowledge always includes a full and complete listing of the local Wizardly heirarchy and support structure, including the Wizard himself, including Wizardly skills and specialtys, and status (available, on vacation, on Errantry, etc.). The Knowledge can be used to mimic the Angelic resonances of a Seraph, Cherub, Elohite, Malakite, or Mercurian. It can also mimic the passive part of an Ofanite's resonance. Each such mimicry requires around 5 to 10 minutes, assesses only one subject, creates no disturbance, costs no mana, but does require that the relevant choir's dissonance condition be adhered to during the attempt. Breaking the dissonance condition causes the resonance attempt to fail automatically. A Wizard who has just had a full nights sleep may spend about ten minutes meditating in The Knowledge to regain Essence for the day. A successful roll will recover the check digit in Essence. Alternatively, about an hour of meditation will substitute for the sleep, for the Wizard on the go. This can be done once per day. A Wizard who spends about a day searching and scavenging may attempt to create Talismans: make a roll against the Knowledge,; if succesful, the CD is the number of your "prepared" claudications which you may bind to certain objects (a willow branch picked by night and stripped of its bark under moonlight, a NiCaD C-cell battery with a band-aid over the + terminal, the radio antenna from a '58 Chevy, etc.). For each, amke another roll against The Knowledge: if you fail, whatever you found wasn't quite right; if you succeed, the CD measures half the amount of extra Mana the object is storing _for that claudication only_ and how many days the Talisman will remain good. (i.e. a CD of 6 on the radio antenna gives 12 mana for the Song of Corp. Fire, good for 6 days.) Note that a claudication bound to a Talisman may not be used without the Talisman, goes away when the Talisman runs out of Mana, and still takes up its slot. A Wizard may use The Knowledge as a psuedo-Celestial "resonance", which assesses a situation for Celestial or Ethereal involvement, and informs the Wizard if it affects the Destiny of the Symphony as a whole. This resonance may be activated by the GM, if the Wizard blunders against an Errantry (q.v.). A Wizard on Errantry may use her "resonance" in The Knowledge to determine the particulars of Celestial Involvement in the Errantry in question, and also what needs to be done to resolve the Errantry. He may also determine if any particular Corporeal, Ethereal, Celestial person or thing is vital to such resolution and something of what its task in such a resolution would be. CD 1: The presence of an Errantry, Superior involvement, Planetary level threats. Confirmation of a detailed Celestial resolution. CD 2: The level of the Errantry, Word-bound or Pagan God-level involvement, Species threats. Presense of a Celestial resolution. CD 3: Celestial or Ethereal Involvement, threats which will resolve themselves in Ten years or less. Confirmation of a Suspected Celestials Involvement. CD 4: The Names or Words of involved Celestials, Century threats. The Name of one Non-Word-bound Celestial who is involved in the resolution. CD 5: Details of Celestial or Ethereal Involvement, Millenial threats. The Name of one Non-Superior Celestial who is involved in the resolution. One thing which a Celstial must do so that a resolution is possible. CD 6: Details of Word-Bound involvement. The Names of those Celestials who can resolve the Errantry, and what they are supposed to do. Note that all of the above results can be a little blurred, as necessary. Potentially, _any_ Song might show up as a Claudication in The Knowledge, if it were ... necessary. Including ones that don't otherwise exist at all ....